An Autumn Wind by Derek Mahon

I 72iWorldLiterature Today JayantaMahapatra. The Lie of Dawns: Poems 1974-2008. New Delhi.Authors press.2009. 196 pages. Rs350. isbn 97881 -9273-474-9 Jayanta Mahapatra'sselectedpoems, titledTheLieofDawns:Poems19742008 , containsnearlyone hundred short lyrics,the entiretext of his long poem "Relationship,"a substantial portion of his other long poem, "Temple,"which deals with the feminineprinciple,and some new unpublishedpoems. The poems arrangedhere,not chronologically but thematically, speak of many Mahapatras, like Mahapatratheprotest poet,Mahapatrathenostalgic poet,and Mahapatra the personal poet, and a Mahapatra defyingany category.The new poems deal withthepoet's confrontationwiththeprocessof aging.In "Pain Is Something ThatHappens in theRoom,"Mahapatrawrites: "I have tocrosstheghetto/ stillI wanttobe here." He is waitingforrevelation, in whichhe feels"Anotherhushed dawn / is tuckedaway." Mahapatrademonstrates a deep sense ofmysticism, a compassionate and anguished self, a self that is introspective, that questions what is given,all topped by a powerful imagination,which is not without bridle. He is a conscientiousand skillful poet who molds theEnglish language to createhis own private symbols.His culture-specific poems, such as theones on theSun Temple ofKonarkand Asokan Kalinga War of 261 b.c., have established him firmly as an Oriyapoet. His hometowngetsa bleak picturein his seminalpoem, "The Lost Children of America": "Here / in the dusty,malarial lanes / of Cuttack where years have slowly lost theirsecrets / theywander / the lostchildrenofAmerica." Thispoem speaks as much about the spiritual vacuumintheAmerican hippiesmoving aroundCuttackin theheydayof hippiesas itdoes ofhis own people. The twisting ironyat play in thefollowinglinesshowsMahapatrain his subliminal bestin the questionsthat answerthemselves: "We gaze at each otherin silence,thelostchildand I; who knowswho is playinga joke on whom?Whocan drivemefrom these meansordidalleyswhereI live?" When the poet is nostalgiche evokeslovingmemories:"Mine was the generationthat paid homage, / Gandhi and Tagore, saw in my mother/ thestareofDostoyevsky's Grand Inquisitor," but when he goes personal thereis nothingbut pain: "Someone in myroomtwenty yearshence,/ And somethingsuddenly born shall nudge me / to convince my poem it should betterstay dead." The veryqualityof uncertainty has humbled him, has enabled him to produce poems of lastingimportance. Rabindra K Swain Gopabandhu Academy ofAdministration Derek Mahon. An Autumn Wind. Loughcrew, Oldcastle, County Meath, Ireland.Gallery.2010. 79 pages. €11.95. isbn 978-1-85235-486-2 A new volumebyDerekMahon,one of the most talentedcontemporary Irishpoets,is always a majorevent. Unlike Mahon's previous volumes, AnAutumn Wind beginswitha homecoming , and stays fullygrounded throughout."As promised," Odysseus 's crew puts him ashore, and althoughhe does not recognizehis island of Ithaca at the outset,he is prompted by a pragmatic Athena to accept and enterthelong-sought home terrain.His toneis perplexed, not uncomplicated,but finallycelebratory .Has Derek Mahon finally come in fromthe cold? This poet made his name rebelling against theconstraints ofhome,wandering, uprootingand re-rooting, surveying his surroundings(physical,cultural, spiritual) with a sort of affectionate disaffection. Ithas notvanished, thankfully - Mahon's grumpiness was perverselylikable - but it has joined witha celebratory mode that appears to be ascendant.His previous volume,LifeonEarth, contained a Utopian note as well as a more pervasivewarningofenvironmental doomsday. An AutumnWind continuesthisenvironmental focusbut subsumes it into a generalcelebrationof "clamorousand vital"human life heterogeneous tobe sure,without thepuritysoughtby theearlier Mahon. "Squalor and decadence" exist beneath the clear existential vistastowardwhichtheauthorstill, sometimes, turnshiseyes.He makes no effort to drownout thevoices of greed, violence, and shallowness, but letsitall be there,likea cosmopolitan ,formalist Larkinmight. AN AUTUMN WIND DerekMahon : ♦* ' "NewSpace"tries toreify transcendent principles in a form-follows -function model,"art,music, and organic growth / nursing the venerable ideal / of spiritlodged withinthereal."If thisis a serious proposition, thenit marksa new stagein Mahon'spoeticphilosophy , butI suspectthatMahon cannotbanishthecall oftheineffablefrom hiswork.His visionof theineffable is no easy matter to define, but it is eternally visible. Thefactthathisearlyexperiments withso-calledtraditional forms rhymes and slantrhymes, regular meter,isometric lines,and numberedstanzas - have comeback is telling. Hisingenuity betokens a joy glowingunderneath thedark,curmudgeonly persona. He willalways bea perpetual amateur oftheworld, wishing desperately tofind thebest waytolive,convinced (irrationally) thatthere is an excessofmeaning beyond"thereal."This keepshis readers eagerfor eachnew,marvelous ,richly textured volume. MagdalenaKay University ofVictoria, B.C. Ece Temelkuran. Book of the Edge. Deniz Perin,tr. Rochester, New York. BOA. 2010. 127 pages. $16. isbn978-1934414 -36-1 A journalist andwriter, Ece Temelkuran hasquestioned highly controversialissuessuchas political prisoners ,Armenian-Turkish relations, andKurdish problems inherbooks and columns. Yet Temelkuran's writing represents not onlyissues

Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Haiku · Introspection · Irony · Joke · Literature · Lyrics · Poetry · Silence · History · Indian History and Philosophy · Philosophy · South Asian Studies and Diaspora