The Dream of an Urbanite

A poem of mine published in the literary magazine "International Gallerie"
Painting by my artist friend Tang Yeok Khang

As I lay me down to sleep

in the cradle of the Valley of Ashes,

images of concrete in my mind do seep.

Muscular modern structures rising from marshes

stare me down like steely, stolid gods,

paying no heed to my scarred wishes.

Men in grey-black suits shuffle in hordes

through the streets paved with cruel tar,

the cogs of their minds turning by rusty rote.

In this alien kingdom nothing rules like cars,

which line up orderly bumper to bumper

from the cracked pavement to the dying stars.

Now up in the smoky air I hunger-linger,

waiting to chance upon a crystal piece of sky,

where dreams and wishes inspire wonder.

The sun breaks through and a window strikes.

The world ignites as on the seventh day,

when Man himself was still god-like.

In a garden dressed in the purity of May,

He strolls in the midst of vast divinity,

never knowing nothing of pure gold can stay.

The glorious days flow on to infinity,

offering elfin dreams in eternal solace.

Among blood-red hyacinths He finds empathy.

Nature and Man each other deeply embrace,

until the two are one and the very same,

and He drowns in redness leaving no trace.

When Man has erased Himself in Nature’s name,

nothing of virgin beauty will be at stake.

Greed and envy are now wild beasts tame.

And if I should die before I wake,

do not weep or say clumsy child-prayers.

For now my wishes a trillion stars shall make.

Edward Ong

Amsterdam, 2010

Comments

Approaching Haruki Murakami’s “Kafka on the Shore” the Jungian Way

“The world of gods and spirits is truly nothing but the collective unconscious inside me.” – Carl Jung, On the Tibetan Book of the Dead What appears to be supernatural and surrealistic in Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore does not have to remain that way once we accept that in Murakami’s fictional world, the natural and the supernatural often cross paths and become one single unity. In the previous three entries on the novel, I have extensively discussed its relation to Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex . But here I intend to explain why the supernatural should in fact be deemed natural, and how this reasoning is a direct reference to the theories of Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung and German philosopher G.W. F. Hegel, both of whom are mentioned in the novel. Carl Jung’s psychological theory on the “collective unconscious” (the notion positing that all humans – regardless of race and culture – share a psyche containing “latent predispositions towards identical reactions” [10])

The Sound of Alienation: Rainer Maria Rilke’s “The Voices”

In the nine “Voices” poems (“Die Stemmen,” 1902), we find Rilke speaking out for those who have suffered pain and injustice. He insists that in order for them to be heard, they need to “advertise” themselves, and this should be done through singing, or songs – like the castrati (referred to as “these cut ones”) who sing to God and compel him to stay and listen. This message is found in the “Title Leaf” – an introduction of sorts to the nine songs. It is tempting to read the nine songs (“Beggar’s,” “Blind Man’s,” “Drunkard’s,” “Suicide’s,” “Widow’s,” “Idiot’s,” “Orphan Girl’s,” “Dwarf’s,” “Leper’s”) as a collection of poetic pleas for social awareness. This is due to Rilke’s “casting choices”; he has selected society’s most conspicuous outcasts as the main speakers of his poems. When, for instance, the beggar in “The Beggar’s Song” says, “I go always from door to door/rain-soaked and sun-scorched,” we are induced to sympathise with his downtrodden fate. The same can be said for

Murakami Salutes Orwell: How "1Q84" Pays Homage to "1984" (Part 2)

Here the reader arrives at the junction where Murakami’s work crosses from the metaphysical to the real and tangible, for in the single-moon world we have also had the misfortune of witnessing writers persecuted for their ability to tell a different “truth.” Salman Rushdie’s fate after the publication of The Satanic Verse is well-documented and needs no reiteration. A more discriminate look at literary history gives us several more voices hushed by the Authorities: Turkish author and Nobel Prize-winner Orhan Pamuk was arrested for comments about the massacres of Armenians in the First World War. Nigerian protest author Ken Saro-Wiwa was tried by a military tribunal and hanged. Yu Jie, author of China's Best Actor: Wen Jiabao , a controversial book that cast a critical light on the premier, landed in hot water with the Chinese authorities, and had to emigrate to the USA for his own safety. His close friend and Nobel Prize-winning literary critic Liu Xiaobo called for politic

Stranger on Earth

Search This Blog