On an Asian Poet Fallen Among American Translators: An analysis

AVERSION ON AMERICAN TRANSLATORS

                                 Yasmine Goonaratne was born in the year 1935, Sri Lanka. She is an eminent novelist of Sri Lanka, published over 16 books including a critical work on Jane Austin. She is famous for her memoirs too. Some of her books were published under male pseudonym, Tilak Gunawardane. Her works majorly covers the themes of Diaspora and post-colonialism. Few of her well known works are, Stories from Sri Lanka, The Sweet and The Simple Kind, New Ceylon Writing, The Pleasure of Conquests, etc.                                       

                                     This poem, 'On An Asian Poet Fallen Among American Translators', is from the pen of Yasmine Goonetratne. In this poem, Goonetratne reveals her inner thoughts strongly about her nation's (Sri Lanka) suffering of the colony administration of America. In the beginning of the poem itself, Yasmine pours her outrage on the American capitalism by denoting that two hundred years is enough to build an empire for a developed country like America, but the same two hundred years is not enough for the Americans to learn the culture, artistry and craft or courtesy of Asia as those things can be own only by the native Asians. 

                                  Here, we should notice that Yasmine does't supports or praising her Sri Lankan culture, but she supports the whole Asian culture and its aesthetic sense of romanticism in literature. In the next stanza of the poem, she bitterly denotes the expression of Americans while they happens to read or translate the Asian literature as they have their Puritan blood which makes them to show their grimace over the Romance flourished literature of Asia. She adds that, Americans are dead heart people, which is not suitable to read her Asian Literature. 

                                        

                                   In the third stanza of the poem, she terribly attacks the approach of America without any valuable culture. She literally points out, "There is death in your touch America." and she merely warns the Americans not to teach and she says that America tries to thrust its ideas in the minds of Asians and it should not dare to do that. she reveals her disrespectful and condemns the American capitalism and she warns to take off their leprous fingers from the divine poetry of Asia by the following lines,

                        

                                           ...."Do you hear me? Are you there?

                                                we are not there, never have been

                                                nor ever shall. Take 

                                               your hands off from our shoulders

                                               our names from your computerized prize lists

                                                and your leprous fingers off

                                                 our poetry"...

On the following stanza, Goonaratne reveals her extreme outrage towards the American translators as there is nothing to consider as wonder that the native poets of America like T.S. Eliot ran away from  his native and Ezra Pound went crazy through poems and Robert Frost found a small satisfaction about the beauty of American landscapes through his poem, "Stopping By The Woods On A Snowy Evening". By this poem as an beautiful example, Goonaratne points out that the beauty cheated Frost as he didn't fully enjoyed because he had 'miles to go',

                            

                                      The woods are lovely, dark and deep,   

                                               But I have promises to keep,   

                                              And miles to go before I sleep,   

                                              And miles to go before I sleep. 

                                The above lines are from the last stanza of the poem Stopping By The Woods On A Snowy Evening written by Frost. Through this, she marks that America naturally doesn't have beauty like Asian countries, if it has, the American country men does't have any taste to admire it, if someone like Frost or anybody happens to admire its beauty, their duty will cheat them by not allowing them to admire or to be drown in the beauty. Furthermore, she points out that, countries which are all have their imperialistic attitude should beg for culture, artistry and craft from the Asian countries. 
                                 
                                 Additionally, she quotes a line from the Shakespearean play, King Lear from Act iv, scene vi  "one who gathers samphire-dreadful trade" by this quotation, she indicates that some (Americans) are wait with hope that tide will turn to collect or to gather the samphire, drift woods, shards and rubble for their possible images. Here, the above things are the wastes and these are all the symbolism of negative images. By these images, Goonaratne says that Americans are waiting at the sea shores waiting to collect those used materials from Asian literature. 
                               
                                 Finally, goonaratne gives a direct and dare smash towards America by the following lines that needs no explanations or interpretations,
                                     
                             ....."America
                                   empty of grace
                                   graveyard of art
                                   monster
                                   living on lazar-house know-how
                                   and hot-house pretensions
                                  America, new found land 
                                   long lost, it seems,

                                   to poetry." 

and finally it proves imperialism can make anything possible to America, but it is highly impossible for a new found land (America) to understand the Asian aesthetic sense, as it can be understood only by a native Asian.