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Edwin Thumboo

After the Leaving…

  • 1 A Call | Translations: de
  • 2 After the Leaving…
  • 5 May 1954 | Translations: de
  • 6 Renovation | Translations: de
  • 7 The Leaving | Translations: de
  • 9 Ulysses by The Merlion
Language: english
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After the Leaving…
For Ee Tiang Hong

There are two countries here: 
One securely meets the eye; 
The other binds your heart.  

This is Perth, and yet Malacca. 
Outside, suddenly spring arrives 
In many wild, surprising flowers. 
But no chempaka, no melor 
Show that beauty of the heart. 
You have lost more hair, though 
Your spectacles perch as usual, 
Looking quizzical, slightly anxious.  

Beyond King's Park, the Swan 
Whose neck nestles among vineyards, 
Ministers to your dreaming home 
To which I go again, in ceremony, 
Remembering... your ukulele 
Mastering the restless crabs, 
Sunset upon the brow of Panteh 2; 
Our shared tobacco; images of  

Heroic days, court and kampong;
That great Tranquerah mosque, 
St Paul's Hill, Sam Po's Well, 
And other abodes of our gods. 

But here the roads are happily
Waltzing with Matilda, leading 
Through miles of bush to Laverton, 
Abandoned mines, receding purple hills.  

And as you hear the recurring 
Soul of Voss adventuring Ayers Rock, 
The Dream-time, purifying deserts, 
Shore, sky and hinterland are yours.  

But you return to Heeren Street, 
Ancestral rooms, intricate histories, 
Starting with a distant fracture 
Of law, of order one quiet noon  

Along uncoiling Amoy Streets, 
Where the migrant, restless spirit 
Took passion to an alien land. 
You feel a deep possession. 
Seven generations of the blood 
Have stirred into the earth, 
Gave sinew, fought fevers. 
Held down swamps, added 
Fertile patterns to the land,
Made the dragon speak
The brown language of the 
Constant, Southern winds.  

After the riots and the edicts, 
You cried in the days of blight.
To leave again, after seven generations,
You must know so bitterly, 
Is surely to return.

© Edwin Thumboo
Audio production: The Literary Centre and Sing Lit Station
Categories: political poetry, society, exile, social critique / cultural criticism, homeland, identity (collective), politics, cities & urban life, traditions, friendship, culture & science, nature, landscape

Translations:

previous poem
   (A Call)
2 / 6
nächstes Gedicht
(May 1954)   
listen to all poems

Edwin Thumboo

photo © private
* , Singapore, Singapore
lives in: Singapore, Singapore

Edwin Nadason Thumboo (b. 1933) is a poet and academic who is regarded as one of the pioneers of English literature in Singapore.

Thumboo graduated in English from the University of Malaya in 1956. Although he applied for a position at the university, he was rejected as few locals held academic posts at that time. He therefore worked in the civil service for about nine years before finally joining the university, then renamed the University of Singapore, in 1966 following Singapore’s independence. He received a Ph.D. from the university in 1970. Thumboo rose to the position of full professor in the Department of English Language and Literature, heading the department between 1977 and 1993. After the merger of the University of Singapore and Nanyang University in 1980 to form the National University of Singapore (NUS), he was the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences from 1980 to 1991, NUS’s longest-serving dean. Thumboo was the first Chairman and Director of the university’s Centre for the Arts from 1993 to 2005, and continues to be associated with the university as an emeritus professor, a position he has held since retiring from full-time teaching in September 1997.

 photo © private
Thumboo’s poetry is inspired by myth and history, and he is often dubbed Singapore’s unofficial poet laureate because of his poems with nationalistic themes. A pioneer of local English literature, he compiled and edited some of the first anthologies of English poetry and fiction from Singapore and Malaysia.

His own collections of poetry include Rib of Earth (1956), Ulysses by the Merlion (1979) and A Third Map (1993). His latest anthology Still Travelling, consisting of almost 50 poems, was published in 2008. Thumboo has won the National Book Development Council of Singapore Book Awards for Poetry three times, in 1978, 1980 and 1994. He has also received the inaugural S.E.A. Write Award (1979), the first Cultural Medallion for Literature (1979), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Cultural and Communication Award (Literature) (1987), and the Raja Rao Award (2002). He was conferred a Bintang Bakti Masyarakat (Public Service Star) in 1981 with an additional Bar in 1991, and the Pingat Jasa Gemilang (Meritorious Services Medal) in 2006.

Publications
  • Rib of Earth

    Singapore: Lloyd Fernando, 1956

  • Gods Can Die

    Singapore: Heinemann Educational Books (Asia), 1977

  • Ulysses by the Merlion

    Singapore: Heinemann Educational Books, 1979

  • A Third Map

    Singapore: Unipress, 1993

  • Still Travelling

    Singapore: Ethos Books, 2008

  • The Best of Edwin Thumboo

    Singapore: Epigram Books, 2012

Awards
  • 1979 Cultural Medallion for Literature

  • 1979 S.E.A. Write Award

  • 1987 ASEAN Cultural and Communication Award (Literature)

  • 2002 Raja Rao Award

  • 1978, 1980, 1994 Singapore Book Award (Poetry)

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