Shanghai 2012 (for K & R) | Zheng He Edwin Thumboo

Two Poems by Edwin Thumboo

*

Shanghai 2012
(for K & R)

I
In this city love smiled and grew
Chrysanthemums whose white petals,
All children of a crystal sun, exude joy,
Multiply red and yellow moments till
They unveil a garden. Creepers climb;
Tall buildings sketch a prospering sky.

You are midway, each of you, fated
From ancestral homes: Fuji San, her
Perfecting cone rising into misty light;
And Gunong Ledang with her Princess
Whose warrior had a lowland history,
Whose southern glance snares monsoons.

************As a blessing,
***Grandpa wrote a great advisory
********On life, living, harmony.

For Tradition is an old yet modern script,
While Love, a single language with many
Grammars, invents pairs, beatitudes, keeps
Yearning for quiet waters. So walk rose-
Petal paths, Ken and Risa, slowly, step-in-
Step, as pines and casuarinas meld sighs.

II
O city, Yangtze child, breathing in her mouth,
You met the West, shared opium, other things
Of appetite. Prosperity grew the Bund, semi-
Global, reflexive in politics, demands, adopting
Art Deco, currencies, stir music of their spheres
With long bar quenching Concession thirsts.

You came, and saw, and shared your heart
With Han spirit, muscle, pulse; put best selves
Into re-invention, enlivening Huangpu banks,
Her high domains, the world as it arrives in
These more equal times, as sons and daughters,
As its coming face, its future deeply present.

---

Part IV of ‘The Indian Ocean’ from the book
Flow Across Our Ocean: Singapore & South Africa (Ethos Books, 2011)

Zheng He

Crossing cultures, alert to mixed octaves was ten ten thousand
Li of learning. Each language curling your tongue polished
Ficatives before faces, some lit by love, some plain sub-
Mission. Tackling provincial memorials, palace intrigues, imperial
Secrets, diplomatic notes and the like, left you
Clever, agile, power-packed, sinewy. Primed you for our
***********************Ocean.
Not all plain sailing, for you warred at times, took hostages, but
With grace enough for a second welcome. Edicts you discharged
As lightly as you could: soft genuflex, acknowledgement, tribute.
Quite civil for the time, dispensing richer gifts, patronage, protection.
Thus Parameswra profited Malacca, kept Siam and Majapahit out.

Often quizzical, quickly keyed against uncertainty.
You conversed with varied, contiguous peoples, nations,
Then skipped ahead of bustling events, turning closer to coming times.
You watched white foam ride sophistication, expansive elements
Alert to opportunities, the half-chance, commercial gambles.
They push big interests beyond hustling radii of half-primes as our
Ocean,
Indicative, cradled, net-worked, re-fuelled her deepest currents,
As your seal of jade affirmed links others quickly used.

Most of all,
You knelt before Divinity, supplicating return to life and habitation,
A Muslim, you venerated Tian Fei to whom your sailors prayed
For saving your fleet from a monstrous hurricane.

At Galle you erected a stele
Prepared in Nanjing. Venerated, lost, then found, it praises Buddha,
Deeply do we revere you, merciful and honoured one, whose bright
perfection is wide-embracing, and whose way of virtue passes all
understanding, whose law pervades all human relations, and the
years of whose great era are as numerous as the sands of the river…. ¹
And Allah, and Tenavarai-Nayanar equally, in Arabic and Tamil.
Each suffused the others. No separation; no counter spirit.
Each hallowed by syllables, this capturing of grace-in-neighbour,
Grace-in-humanity,
In mystic solitude to vaporise bad vibes, which our trusty
Ocean
Second sweeps for a lotus, vibhuti, amber-beaded cord.
*******************************Thus we keep our triple spheres,
Each its inner worship,
Free, open pilgrimage on a common road,
Unique chant of separate prayers whose singular beat
Is from shared and sharing hearts.

Do not lose this gift, this blessing,
Ocean,
As you touch
Land and Water, Earth and Fire,
The Moon’s cool radiance, the Sun’s flare.

We meet to dream and claim another piece of history.
Embrace all modern tides, here, where our
*******************************Ocean
Gathers unto itself, in harmony, in restoration,
In meeting others,
***************With a single, singular wave.

~

One of the foremost and critically-respected writers in Singapore, Edwin Thumboo is emeritus professor at the National University of Singapore, and has held visiting professorships in the US, UK, Australia, Austria, Hong Kong and Malaysia. His publications include Rib of Earth (1956), Gods Can Die (1977), Ulysses by the Merlion (1979), A Third Map: New and Selected Poems (1993), Friend (2003), Still Travelling (2008) and Bring the Sun (2008). He received the Cultural Medallion in 1979 and the Meritorious Service Medal in 2006, the National Book Development Council Book Award for Poetry in English (1978, 1980 and 1994), Southeast Asia Write Award (1979), Singapore Cultural Medallion (1980), ASEAN Cultural and Communication Award in Literature (1987), the Raja Rao Award (2002), and the Meritorious Service Medal, Singapore (2006). A Fellow of the International Writing Programme, University of Iowa (1977), he has given readings in various universities and international literary festivals and book fairs.

Sébastien Tahucatte is a Mauritian graphic professional who works as an illustrator and a graphic designer. Influenced by pop art, urban lifestyle, comics and numerous trips, this worldwide citizen initially intended to be a astrophysicist. Filled by his passion for drawing and illustration, Seba Labs—as he is known in the art industry—dreams of being a fulltime comic artist and believes that telling stories is one of the best profession in the world.