A soldier’s wife weep

A soldier’s wife weep   Kamal Wijeratne

Last Saturday when you went back from leave
I watched until you disappeared over the bend and long after;
Until my breast gave a great heave,
And lit the lamp before the Buddha and prayed no end.

 On Wednesday when the crow cried on the dead branch
And the sky colored over with the colour of charcoal
I had no fears, I knew you were safe
I had your horoscope read and there were no malefic

 But on Thursday when they bore you home
I did not know what to believe, what to think
It was as if I had slept a long sleep
And saw things in a haze between life and death.

 Was it on Saturday that we bathed together at the village well

And you boy like threw stones as the sneering frogs
And drank deeply of the scent of the giant palm
That had ominously broken in the splendorous fragrant flower?

 Looking back now I seem to see things I never saw before
The way you hung behind me touched m y hair
The way you leaned against the door
And watched me as I busted about.

 They gave you a hero’s burial
With all military honors
The band played
And your body passed from hand to hand
I saw everything from inside a mist
The drone of voices like a plane
Making its uncertain way through the clouds
I think they spoke of the way of life and death
I think of the bare, barren years.

 Stretching like a road swaying through a desert
And wounded how to pre occupy myself
How to make the day go forward.

On weekends when I have nothing to do
I spread the white wedding sari on the floor
And contemplate how I stood on the Poruwa with you
Shyly tying the piece of white cloth around my waist

 How wrong the horoscope readers were………..

 Kamala Wijeratne

 Kamala Wijeratne was born in Ulapone, a village near Kandy one of the beautiful place in Sri Lanka.  She is the eldest of six children in her family. 

She did her education in a missionary girl’s school in Teldeniya. Then she transferred to Scholastica’s Girls school Kandy and then did her degree in the University of Ceylon, Peradeniya in 1959.

 She graduated with English in 1962.  She completed a Post Graduate Diploma in English as a Second Language and then did her Masters in Arts in Education from the University of Ceylon, Peradeniya.  She received her second Master degree from the University of Edinburgh. Her works are “The Smell of Araliya” 1983, “That One Talent” 1987, “Impressions” 2017. Ect. 

 Her works are well knows in the literary world of Sri Lanka. She did interesting Short stories too.  “Death by Drowning and Other Stories” 1999, “Ten Stories” 2012 and “The Plotted Plant” 2014.  The awards she received are Joint Winner of the State Literary Award for the Best Collection of Poems in 2002, Goage Award for the best collection of short stories in 2012, and Sahithya Ratna life time achievements award the highest honor given to Sri Lankans who has made excellent contribution to Sri Lanka Literature.

 Summary of the poem

 A young wife of a military officer expresses her tears through words in the poem.  The soldier has sacrificed his life for his country in the battle between the Government and a separatist group.  The young wife who lives in tears recollects the beautiful memories of her husband. 

She shares her romantic moments with him.  But all her pretty and beautiful days have disappeared like dew in the sunshine.  She could not control her pain to see the dead body of her husband.  The respectful burial of her husband increases her pain and her future looks dark with no happiness.  The whole poem brings out the emptiness and loneliness of the young widow.  A very painful experience of every soldier’s wife.

 Detail analysis of the poem

 “Last Saturday when you went back from leave
I watched until you disappeared over the bend and long after;
Until my breast gave a great heave,
And lit the lamp before the Buddha and prayed no end”

The first stanza says the military soldier leaves his home and his wife to join the duty.  The wife says bye with sad face to her husband and he goes beyond the bend of the path. Then with heavy heart she comes back into her home and prays to Lord Buddha with a lit lamp.  She prays for the safety of her husband.  She prays endlessly for her loving husband.   The poem gives a simple life style of a young wife.  She doesn’t have any great expectations. She only desires to be with her husband and prays her god to protect him in the battle.  The poem indirectly expresses the futility of war which does no good to anyone.  It destroys the happiness and kills the precious life of innocent people.

 “On Wednesday when the crow cried on the dead branch
And the sky colored over with the colour of charcoal
I had no fears, I knew you were safe
I had your horoscope read and there were no malefic”

 A very important and interesting stanza which brings out various aspects of nature and strong beliefs of Sri Lankans.  The soldier’s wife sees various ominous natural signs around her.  The crow cries on the empty branch, the crow’s cries show the uncomfortable feeling of the wife.  “Cries”, “Dead branch” symbolize the future events.  It connect the pain that yet to come.  The clouds are dark like charcoal, a very interesting comparison to the charcoal.  The dark black clouds makes the young wife very uneasy as she thinks a lot about her husband.  But she comforts herself by thinking of the husband’s horoscope.  The poet brings out the strong traditional belief of the Sri Lanka on horoscopes.  They trust the horoscope rather than the destiny.  She knows the reading of her husband’s horoscope as there are no wrong predictions, she feels peaceful.  This foreshadows the future destruction of her life.  it gives a tension to the readers. Skillful description about the feelings of the lonely life of every young wives of every young soldiers create a uneasy feelings to the readers.

“But on Thursday when they bore you home
I did not know what to believe, what to think
It was as if I had slept a long sleep
And saw things in a haze between life and death.”

 Third stanza changes the mood of the poem.  She receives the dead body of the brave soldier.  The whole world has gone to pieces.  She could not believe herself.  She could not come to her sense.  She feels that she has just been into a deep sleep.  She could not come to herself.  She stands between life and death.  Her sudden shock after seeing the dead body of her husband changes her feelings to numbness and the poet compares to a long sleep where she could not realize her surrounding as she is lost and gone into a deep darkness.

 “Was it on Saturday that we bathed together at the village well
And you boy like threw stones as the sneering frogs
And drank deeply of the scent of the giant palm
That had ominously broken in the splendrous fragrant flower?”

 The recollections of the young wife.  Her memories of her husband, she remembers their happy moments.  They had a bath on Saturday the weekends in their village well.  He played throwing stones at the sneering frogs.  The nature brings lovely images to the readers.  “Giant palm, “fragrant flower” sneering frogs, “village well all paint the simple life of the village couple.  The young couple are blessed by the nature.  Their love and affection to each other are well expressed with simple words to enjoy.  The readers could feel the love and passion of the young newly wedded couple.  But her memories bring tears as she stands alone without her husband.  He is no more.  The war destroyed and destroys the life of everyone in every ways.

 “Looking back now I seem to see things I never saw before
The way you hung behind me touched m y hair
The way you leaned against the door
And watched me as I busted about”.

 She continues in this to share her happies moment with her loving husband.  She remembers the way he hangs behind her, touches her hair, and gives an affectionate look at her leaning against the door when the wife gets angry at him for his mischievous romances.  But where he is now is the question which makes the readers sad.  She suffers in pain without him. She lives in fear, nowhere to go, her life is empty now and living in emptiness and never ending pain.

 “They gave you a hero’s burial
With all military honors
The band played
And your body passed from hand to hand
I saw everything from inside a mist
The drone of voices like a plane
Making its uncertain way through the clouds
I think they spoke of the way of life and death

I think of the bare, barren years.”

 Very different nine lines stanza. The poet describes the funeral of the young wife’s dead husband.  He has been given a decent and respectable military honors and burial.  She sees all with pain and tears.  “From inside a mist” a painful description.  She is filled with pain. She is totally broken and collapsed.  Everything look uncertain to her. No one could comfort her.  Her ways look like uncertain clouds.  “Mist”, “clouds” “bare, barren are words which bring out her pain.  Her life is nothing but a barren land where nothing could grow with fertility.  All have gone with her husband, her smiles and happiness disappeared.  Her empty life is compared to barren land.  Hereafter there is no life for her, she could not go forward all look like a darkest paths to her.

 “Stretching like a road swaying through a desert
And wounded how to pre occupy myself
How to make the day go forward.”

 The seventh stanza moves the readers to feel so sad and pity for the young widow.  She finds hard to pass a lonely day.  Her memories becomes so heavy and painful to her.  They are chasing her.  Her days stretches like a long empty never ending road and desert.  She is wounded.  The wounds could not be healed.  They become so intolerable when she thinks of her husband.  She does not know how to occupy herself.  Her thoughts are haunting her.  They become thorns and pricks her every minute to the core.  She does not know to make a day go forward.

 “On weekends when I have nothing to do
I spread the white wedding sari on the floor
And contemplate how I stood on the Poruwa with you

Shyly tying the piece of white cloth around my waist”

 The eighth stanza paints the sad situation of the lonely widow.  On weekends when she has nothing to do, she spreads her white wedding sari on the floor and contemplate her wedding ceremony.  She recollects the Poruwa ceremony where she stood with shy next to her husband and tying the white cloth around her waist why smile.  Those were the most memorable moments she thinks with tears.  The colors plays a vital role to add sadness to the poem.   “White sari”, “White cloth”, the color white symbolizes purity of the relationship between the husband and wife.  It’s a proud part of the Sri Lankan culture to follow the Poruwa ceremony where the meaning of the marriage is established. 

 “How wrong the horoscope readers were………..”

 The reading of horoscope to see the compatibility between man and woman before marriage is a part of Sri Lankan tradition.  It gives a great hope for those who believe the horoscope.  But the young widow raises a question to the society where everything seem fake.  “How wrong the horoscope readers were” the charts do not predict the sudden death and untimely death and the fate of the war victims.  Reading horoscope and making the people to believe is a business with the intention of money.   The young widow gives awareness to think about expectation and reality.

 

Poetical analysis

  It is a nine stanzas poem with no regular rhyme pattern.  Each stanza contain different number of lines.  The first stanza with four lines gives a gloomy picture or image of a young wife with worried looks “lit the lamp” Foreshadows her dark future.  No light can bring back her smiles.  Praying to Lord Buddha shows her only hope for safety and protection to her loving husband who goes back to join his duty as a soldier after the marriage.

 The names of the week are mentioned in each stanza to show the short lived happiness of the young wife.  The second stanza gives a tension as she could feel a clumsy, ominous feeling.  She again starts to sense out the strange signs of nature. “Crow cries on the dead branch” the cries of the crows gives an unusual atmosphere and the “dead branch” represents the emptiness she could face, “Sky with charcoal color” a very discomfort image.  The sky has turned into dark charcoal color.  The sky is metaphorically compared to charcoal to bring out the unpleasant situation of the young wife.

 Long sleep is her lost situation where she could not bring herself to face the reality.  The poet in every stanza starts with the names of the week.  It is really a painful experience, within few days. She sees both happiness and suffering.  The nature plays an important part in the following stanzas.  “Crows, empty branch, sky, well, frogs, giant palm and flowers” all take the readers to a village background.  They say a message to the readers. Some are connected to her ill-fate, and some bring back her happy moments.  A very natural relationship between the young couple is described by the poet.  Their exchange of love and affection, anger and teasing are giving a melodious tone to the poem with the smell of village background.

 The soldier’s burial says his sacrifice and bravery.  He receives the military honors with no life is ironical.  The mist symbolizes her feelings which could not be shared.  Many voices are compared to the drone over her speaking about the two stages of life human cycle life and death.  But the young widow looks to the bare, that is empty and barren that is infertile future of her.  Bare and barren are metaphorically related to her present and future situation.

 Her life is compared to stretching road, and desert and she wonders how to go forward.  She occupies her time by sitting on her white wedding sari and recollects the sweet memories of her wedding.  Everything comes before her eyes and the young widow cries in pain and raises a question how wrong the horoscope readers were.  The blind faith, tradition and culture are destroyed by War. War has no mercy for anything or for anyone.

The poet thus conveys a good message to the society about the expectation and the reality of life.

 

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