Through the generosity of Ajarn Adul Wichiencharoen Room, a book of poetry from Thailand has been newly acquired by the Thammasat University Libraries. It is shelved in the Adul Wichiencharoen Room of the Pridi Banomyong Library. A Premier Book of Contemporary Thai Verse includes work by many interesting authors, including Kovit Khemananda, a Thai Buddhist artist and spiritual teacher. Born in 1938 in the village of Tha Khura in Southern Thailand, near Songkhla Lake, he was much inspired by the Thai landscape. The TU Libraries also own other books by the same writer. Ajarn Kovit’s poem in the anthology has a title like a recipe:
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Boil Rice, Stir in Salt
Today by the dock the pot woman
Boils rice, adds tomatoes, stirs in salt.
Grab some, get aboard quick
If you want to cross over.
The ferry keeps going, still no land.
We’d be hungry without the rice.
Days and days. This morning from the deck
I saw the pot woman
standing in the sky by the enlightened ones
eating tomato rice
and looking down at the no shore sea.
Written in the ferry
At Nakanchunkonta,
Tamilnad,
9 March 1978.
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Why is this poem interesting? It may seem very plain to some readers, about tomatoes and rice, cooked for people about to travel on a ferry boat. Yet while it deals with everyday subjects, a note by the translators tells readers that it was written while the author was a Buddhist monk, as part of a series of meditations on a pilgrimage through India. The way the poem ends, with the food vendor appearing to stand
standing in the sky by the enlightened ones
eating tomato rice
and looking down at the no shore sea.
suggests some kind of supernatural meaning for this character. Also, the idea of a sea with no shore, or as the translated poem calls it, a no shore sea, suggests that the pilgrim’s journey may be infinite, and so it is better to provide for long travel. This preparation may include eating rice with tomatoes as well as spiritual preparation for a pilgrimage. This simple yet meaningful poem takes its place alongside other outstanding volumes in the TU Libraries collection, such as the poems of H.H. Prince Prem Purachatra (1915 – 1981), who published under the pen name Prem Chaya. Son of HRH Prince Purachatra Jayakara, the Prince of Kamphaengphet, himself a son of HM King Chulalongkorn (Rama V), Ajarn Prem taught at TU, Chulalongkorn, and Silpakorn Universities. He also served as president of the Siam Society, Thai PEN Centre, and was a fellow of the Thai Royal Institute. After a long academic career, he served as ambassador to India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Afghanistan, Denmark, and Norway. Named in his honor, the Prem Purachatra Building on the campus of Chulalongkorn University houses that language institute, recognizing his in-depth study of comparative literature. A number of memoirs Praise Ajarn Prem for his ability and personality. From the City Inside the Red River: A Cultural Memoir of Mid-century Vietnam by Đình Hoà Nguyễn (1924-2000), a linguist and expert in Vietnamese studies, celebrates Ajarn Prem as a Cambridge-educated scholar with an impeccable British accent. We may appreciate his accent from a radio interview during a visit to Australia in 1967, posted online on Soundcloud, where Ajarn Prem does sound like a graduate of Cambridge University in the UK. Professor Đình had worked with Prince Prem to establish an English Learning Center for the ASEAN region. Another memoir, The Accidental Diplomat: The Autobiography of Maurice Baker, by a diplomat from Singapore who died this year at age 97, also features an appreciation of Ajarn Prem. Ambassador Baker notes:
Among the more scholarly ambassadors was Prince Prem Purachatra of Thailand, a professor well-known in Asian academic circles as an authority on education… The prince was also a gourmet, an expert on wines, cheese and cigars.
Given his exposure to the English language and other pleasant things of life, it is natural that Ajarn Prem was moved to express himself in poetic form. The TU Libraries own one of his best collections, A Fragile Thing; A Third Book Of Poems. It contains poems written after he endured health problems, leading to the amputation of his right leg in 1970. This experience only deepened his connection to his wife, the collection’s dedicatee. Many of the poems specifically speak of their enduring love, while others, although apparently about other people who have undergone similar experiences, also refer to enduring love. For example:
Stumpy
Born in an evil, pain-mad hour,
I survived an amputation;
And now with a robust vigour
I serve my stout master, helping
To carry him everywhere,
Unseen, unheard and unheeded
Except by her whom he adores
And calls “Lady Beautiful Heart.”
1971
The plain and clear writing makes the poem especially effective, as well as inventing the term pain-mad to describe the time of a person’s life. This adjective may possibly mean pain of such severity that it drives people insane. There is also a strong message that work and duties continue even after serious health challenges. In another poem, After Thirty Years, Ajarn Prem quotes the English poet Robert Browning, who wrote to his wife Elizabeth Barrett Browning, also a poet:
My only good in this world/Is to spend my life with you,/ And be yours.
Some poems are inspired by continued travels to Norway, Denmark, New Zealand and other placed, but always remind the poet of his devotion to his wife. Thais know that Ajarn Prem was not alone in greatly admiring his wife, Princess Prem (Ngarmchita) Purachatra (1915-1983). In 2015 UNESCO honored her on the occasion of her centenary as an Eminent Personality for her extensive work in social and public welfare as well as educational development. As a memorial website explains, Princess Prem Purachatra studied at Jane Hays Memorial School in Bangkok and the Wattana Wittaya Academy, Thailand’s first boarding school for girls, established in 1878. After pursuing pharmalogical studies at the Sorbonne in Paris, she returned to Thailand after the outbreak of World War II, and married Prince Prem Purachatra. One of the couple’s first projects was to launch The Standard, a weekly English language newspaper. Active with the Thai Red Cross and the National Council of Women of Thailand, she was eventually elected president of the International Council of Women. It is understandable that Ajarn Prem’s poetry collections should all be dedicated to his wife, who in addition to all her good works cared for language as well, speaking English, French, and Spanish. Her website includes the following advice, useful for any poet, student, or ajarn:
Improve oneself to get along with others. Do not change others for your convenience, it is impossible.
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)