‘English
with a smile’ is the title of a series of study guides for students and
teachers of English written by W.H. Samaranayake, the renowned
educationist, grammarian and philanthropist. Samaranayake was
magnanimous and must have made thousands who had previously found
English a hard language to master speak it with ease. He probably made
them smile through the lessons and thereafter.
‘English smile’
or rather the ‘English-laugh’ is different. It’s a term I heard just a
few hours ago for the first time during a conversation with Suminda
Kithsiri Gunaratne who has just come out with his sixth collection of
poetry, ‘Prisma (Prisms).’
In the year 1991, some students
of Eheliyagoda Central College were taken on an educational tour. They
had visited the Martin Wickramasinghe Museum, the Galle Fort and finally
the Narigama beach. It must have been a lot of fun of course, but an
unexpected gust of wind had dampened the enthusiasm of a few students.
The incident was recorded in poetic form and written on the blackboard
of the class when next they attended school.
කොග්ගල ප්රාඥයා බලලා
ගාල්ලේ කොටු බැම්ම නැගලා
ඉස්කෝලේ අද්දියාපන ගමන දිගේ
අපි ආවේ...
නාරිගම වෙරළට!
එක පාරටම නෝබිනා හුළඟක් ඇවිදිල්ලා
සුදු ගවුම් කීපයක් උඩ ගියා!...
විලි බියෙන් කිළිපෙළූ බාලිකා
දෑත් දෙදනේ ඔබා
එක තැනම ගුලි වෙලා
නැවතුනා!...
එය දුටුව නාකි දඬු සුද්දියක්
සුදු වැල්ල බදාගෙන
හෙළුවැල්ල මුදාගෙන
කට කොනින්...
හිනැහුණා!...
It was titled ‘Ingreesi Hinava’ and later published in Sumina’s maiden collection of poetry, ‘Chakkaran Kotuwa (Hopscotch Square).’
Ok. The translation:
Having visited the Wise Man of Koggala,
and walked the ramparts of Galle Fort
in this educational tour
we stopped next
at the Narigama beach!
A delinquent gust of wind
came suddenly by
And a few white frocks swept up!
Stung by embarrassment
the girls clutched at their knees
crouched and stopped!
A gaunt old suddi
hugging the white sand
exposing her nudity
having seen it all
from the corner of her mouth
smiled!
The play of the word වැල්ල (wella, meaning sand) in the words sudu wella (white sand) and heluvella (nudity) is hard to translate. The irony of course is obvious.
Suminda
would have written this when he was around 14 years old. He would agree
that it could have been improved upon with a few technical tweaks he
probably wasn’t aware of at the time.
He noticed something. He
recorded something that happened and worked into it the irony that many
others probably missed. Good stuff for a 14 year old.
What’s
interesting is that even if the incident is random and isolated, the
overall play is not. It’s part of what this society is. To be more
precise it describes much of the politics of language associated with
English. Something gets exposed (language-deficiency) for no fault of
the victim and it prompts a knowing, cynical and even mocking smile.
That disdainful smile, indicative of a superiority complex, is hardly
disguised in certain circles. What it reveals of course is a certain
nudity.
It’s a we-know-you-don’t syndrome. It’s not limited to
English and a certain class of people who think language competency is
indicative of superior wisdom or even technical know-how. We see it
among ‘the educated.’ We see it in the flaunting of certificates and
social status. We see it, ironically indeed, among those who claim to be
engaged in emancipatory projects. Condescension, at best, but at worst
it is absolutely malicious.
Not everyone can have ‘an English
smile,’ obviously. It’s an elite-thing or in its more pernicious form an
elite-wannabe-thing. Something we can do without.
We all see
through tinted glasses of one kind or another, the truth passes through
prisms ideological and otherwise and in the scattering of light into
colours we are bombarded with truth-slivers which are therefore,
inevitably, half-lies.
There will always be gusts of wind that
can embarrass. We respond as best we can. No one needs to laugh, but
there will be ‘white’ people or rather black-white people (kalu-suddas)’
who will laugh or politely stifle a guffaw, perhaps not noticing is
that there’s another tribe, culturally ‘white’ in the post-colonial
context if you will, who is laughing at the embarrassed as well as those
amused by the embarrassment.
The English Smile. Look out for
it. It will tell you a lot of things about the cultural politics of our
times and the pathways people traveled to get to the Land of Derision.
['The Morning Inspection' is the title of a column I wrote for the Daily News from 2009 to 2011, one article a day, Monday through Saturday. This is a new series. Links to previous articles in this new series are given below]
Other articles in this series:
No 27, Dickman's Road, Colombo 5
Visual cartographers and cartography
Ithaca from a long ago and right now
Lessons written in invisible ink
The amazing quality of 'equal-kindness'
The interchangeability of light and darkness
Sisterhood: moments, just moments
Chess is my life and perhaps your too
Reflections on ownership and belonging
The integrity of Nadeesha Rajapaksha
Signatures in the seasons of love
To Maceo Martinet as he flies over rainbows
Fragrances that will not be bottled
Colours and textures of living heritage
Countries of the past, present and future
Books launched and not-yet-launched
The sunrise as viewed from sacred mountains
Isaiah 58: 12-16 and the true meaning of grace
The age of Frederick Algernon Trotteville
Live and tell the tale as you will
Between struggle and cooperation
Neruda, Sekara and literary dimensions
Paul Christopher's heart of many chambers
Calmness gracefully cascades in the Dumbara Hills
Serendipitous amber rules the world
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