When I was in Innisfree, County
Sligo Lake
Isle
Now I have this sudden urge to visit the same county again,
oftentimes known as Yeats Country because this summer marks 150 years since
Yeats was born.
Lake Isle of Innisfree in the background
As is befitting a legend and a Nobel Prize winner for
literature in 1923, this commemorative year boasts of nationwide events with
the highlight being Yeats day (June 11 – 14). On the international arena for
this year, his works are also enjoyed and shared in Moscow ,
London , Washington Rio and Beijing .
For us who love literature and poetry, this celebrative
extravaganza is a sure delight.
How many of us have aspired to write a novel or have a poem
immortalised on a wall of fame? Alas, in my search for similarities between
Yeats and I, I find great humour in the
trivial.
Take for example, when Yeats cooked sausages to celebrate
the news that he had won the Nobel Prize. The Full Irish breakfast is not the
same without sausages. I have heard of elderly ladies smuggling sausages across international
borders (when on vacation) for their loved ones just like how some of us would
also do the same for Malaysian delicacies. Frying sausages for breakfast is
something of an enjoyable routine to me. The whole kitchen being awashed with
the fragrance of hot piping sausages bursting through the skin is something to
die for. Unlike Yeats, I don’t think I’ll ever get that infamous ‘You’ve won
the Nobel Prize’ phone call.
There were also several people who fired Yeats’ passion.
His ideology about life took several different turns as he
grew older. I guess that happens to us as well. It would be most strange to
find static characters whose mindsets have not been challenged or developed.
His poems too became more symbolic and complex as the years went on. I remember
having had a hard time as an undergraduate comprehending ‘Second Coming’ and
answering questions on his concepts of the supernatural and eternity. The fact
that his poems also carried political themes did not help as we would need to
be well acquainted with Irish politics.
Yeats also mentioned the ‘nine bean rows’ that he would have
on the Lake Isle
I am empowered by one of Yeats’ quotes - “think like a wise
man but communicate in the language of the people”. I have never been so
immersed in a society as I do now…..mixing with people from all walks of life.
Prior to coming to Ireland ,
my circle of friends comprised mainly of
the academia and the church. I would surely need the wisdom of Solomon to make
sense of this present mingling.
Yeats also had a close circle of friends and family members
as well as creative people who impacted his life. I would like to think that I
too have the same. It is so true that iron sharpens iron and like minds nourish
each other. Great friends are those that you make at any stage of your life and
keep them.
Yeats died on January
28, 1939 in a room overlooking the Mediterranean
at Cap Martin on the French Riviera. It took almost a decade and two funerals
(with the Second World War in – between)
before his remains were finally brought back to Ireland .
Rumours have it that it might not have been his body either, possibly Alfred
Hollis, an Englishman who died around the same time and was buried beside him
in the same French cemetery.
Great people do have a touch of mystery that sets them
apart, even in death.
