Meeting Some Old Friends

This year I was lucky to be invited again by my wife Sylvie, to accompany her on a tour of the UK and the USA - everything prepaid by her. It was a wonderful experience, the holiday of a lifetime.
Each day, we travelled together with fifty other people from different countries and continent, and of different nationalities. That gave us an opportunity to exchange views and ideas on a variety of topics. Like a family, we had breakfast, lunch and dinner together, unlike what sadly happens nowadays in many modern families where every member has his/her meal separately in a private room, study, or in front of the television, computer or with an ipod. Bonds of friendship were established among our group as we could all easily communicate with each other in English, the number one international language, in spite of what some of our linguistic experts at home think, when they advocate kreol morisien for our kids attending the ZEP schools. Above all, the tour was really an exhilarating experience.

Great Irish Writers
Apart from the magnificent scenery, the beautiful mountains, seas, rivers and lakes ; apart from the tall buildings, ancient monuments, huge cathedrals and old famous castles that a visitor may call 'Wonders of Britain & Ireland', some of which I may describe in another paper, apart from the unforgettable comradeship, I was extremely delighted to meet some old friends of mine. As a matter of fact, we started our tour of the UK in Cardiff, the capital of Wales. As we left Cardiff, we passed through a mystical and unspoilt region of Ireland winding our way through Killorglin (of Puck Fair fame), Cahirciveen, Waterville and Moll's Gap. It was in Ireland that I met some of my old friends who almost all had been Nobel Prize Winners in Literature, at one time or another. These were Jonathan Swift, George Bernard Shaw - 1925, Samuel Beckett - 1969, William Butler Yeats - 1923.
I have deliberately chosen to start with my old friend Jonathan Swift, because in our group of companions on the UK tour, there were two Americans who were sharing one hotel room during the trip. One looked like the young boy David ; she was short, whereas her roommate was very tall, to some extent like Goliath. And that reminded me of Lilliput and Brobdignag as described in Gulliver's Travels, which is a novel by Jonathan Swift. The Lilliputians are six-inch-tall humans, whereas the Brobdignagians are described as giants who are as tall as church steeple and whose strides are ten yards. The novel is both a satire on human nature and a parody of the “travellers' tales.” In fact, my friendly relationship with Jonathan Swift started many years ago when I had to do Gulliver's Travels as one of the texts prescribed for my university studies for a bachelor's degree.
“Jonathan Swift was an Anglo-Irish priest, essayist, political writer, considered the foremost satirist in the English language. Swift's fiercely ironic novels and essays, including world classics such as Gulliver's Travels and the Tale of the Tub, were immensely popular in his own time for their ribald humor and imaginative insight into human nature. Swift's object was to expose corruption and express political and social criticism through indirection.”

The Nobel Prize Winners
My next encounter in Ireland was with my old friend, George Bernard Shaw whom I had first met, a very long time ago, through his plays - 'Arms and the Man, ' 'Saint Joan 'and 'Pygmalion. Arms and the Man is a comedy whose title comes from the opening words of Virgil's Aeneid in Latin Arma virumque cano (“Arms and the man I sing”) “Arms and the Man is a humorous play which shows futility of war and deals with the hypocrisies of human nature in a comedic fashion.”
Saint Joan is another play by George Bernard Shaw, based on the life and trial of Joan of Arc. The play dramatises what is known of her life based on the substantial records of her trial.
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and co-founder of the London School of Economics. Nearly all his writings address prevailing social problems. “Issues which engaged Shaw's attention included education, marriage, religion, government, health care, and class privilege. He was most angered by what he perceived as the exploitation of the working class. An ardent socialist, Shaw wrote many brochures and speeches for the Fabian Society. He became an accomplished orator in the furtherance of its causes, which included gaining equal rights for men and women, alleviating abuses of the working class… He is the only person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize in Literature (1925) and an Oscar (1938) for his contributions to literature and for his work on the film Pygmalion (adaptation of his play of the same name) respectively.” - My Fair Lady.
As we pursued our journey through Phoenix Park and the stately Georgian Squares in Dublin, I came across Samuel Beckett another old friend to whom my good friend, Joseph Tsang Mang Kin, himself a poet and writer, had introduced me several years ago. Samuel Beckett was an Irish avant-garde playwright, poet and novelist best known for his play Waiting for Godot. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1969. “Waiting for Godot” is an absurdist play by Samuel Beckett. It centers on a pair of vagrant men, Vladimir and Estragon, and their efforts to divert themselves while waiting, on a vague pretense, for the arrival of a man named Godot, whom they only know by reputation. To occupy the time they philosophize, sleep, argue, sing, exercise, swap hats and consider suicide - anything “to hold the terrible silence at bay.”
Before we crossed the Irish Sea to Holyhead, Wales, I met my old friend William Butler Yeats. Our friendship had lasted a very long time. It first began when I had to study his poems for my university degree. William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. In 1923 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature as the first Irishman so honoured for what the Nobel Committee described as “inspired Poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation.” Yeats is generally considered one of the few writers who completed their greatest works after being awarded the Nobel Prize. The following represent a few of his famous quotes :
“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” “Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people.” “But I being poor, I have spread my dreams under your feet ; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.” “Once you attempt legislation upon religious grounds, you open the way for every kind of intolerance and religious persecution.” “Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot ; but make it hot by striking.”
The Lake District !

To be continued

14 July 2013