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Edwin Thumboo (b. 1933) |
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Singaporean scholar, literary critic, and poet writing in
English. Edwin Thumboo has often been described as the unofficial poet
laureate of the Republic of Singapore. Central themes in his
work are commitment and artistic integrity, and national
identity and multicultural awareness. Nothing, nothing in my days Edwin
Nadason Thumboo was born in Mandai, on the outskirts of Singapore. His
father, who married twice, was a
primary school teacher of Indian (Tamil) descent and mother of Chinese
origin. Before English became Thumboo's main language, his mother
tongue was Teochew. His father and mother spoke English, and
occasionally Malay. Due to his mixed parentage, Thumboo was
taunted at school with racist comments and even at the university he
was called a "half cast". His maternal granduncle called him "Black
Teochew". Thumboo's teacher used to recite poems, Wordsworth's Lucy Poems and Blake's 'Songs of Innocence and Experience
were his favorites. Thumboo began writing while still at school in the
early 1950s, although his strong subjects were mathematics, physics and
chemistry. Especially the poems in F.T. Palgrave 's The Golden Treasury
influenced him a lot. Moreover, Edgar Allan Poe and Coleridge's
'Christabel' and 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' were important for
him in his formative years, but Yeats made the most durable impact –
his sentiments on the building of nation and identity-formation
resonated with Thumboo. Later he became interested in African writing,
and his reading widened to Indian, West Indian, Australian and New
Zealand poetry. Together with other members of the Socialist Club, Thumboo was charged for publishing a seditious article the Fajar, entitled 'Aggression in Asia' (1954), in which the writers stated: "Our young men are being conscripted; our land is being turned into a military base. Our country is to fight in wars over whose making it will not have any say. We must collaborate in crushing the Indo-Chinese people. We are to be the allies of petite fascists like Syngman Rhee, Chiang Kai Chek and hibun Songgram who stand for totalitarian tyranny. We would rather stand with Republican Indian, Republican China, Republican Burma and their allies in Asia and Africa. The people of this country do not identity themselves with the actions of the Colonial government.". The trial ended in the Club's victory, but it took twenty-five years, before Thumboo published his famous anti-colonial poem 'May 1954': "Depart: / You knew when to come; surely know when to go." After graduating in 1957 from the University of Malaya, Thumboo worked as a civil servant, first in the Income Tax Department, and then in the Central Provident Fund Board, and the Singapore Telephone Board. In 1966 Thumboo entered the University of
Singapore (later renamed National University of Singapore), formed
after the city-state gained independence. He
took up an assistant lectureship and completed his doctoral thesis on
African poetry in English in 1970. "What I wanted to do at the
University was shift the literary orientation to go beyond English
Literature (and American Literature) without neglecting it," Thumboo
said in an interview. (Peninsular Muse: Interviews with Modern Malaysian and Singaporean Poets, Novelists and Dramatists, edited by Mohammad A. Quayum, 2007, p. 57) During his visits in Nigeria, Sierra
Leone, Ghana, Uganda and Kebya, he met such leading figures of African
literary world as Lenrie Peters, Kofie Awoonor, Wole Soyinka, J.P.
Clark, and Ngugi wa Thiongo. Thumboo concluded that where the writer
under the colonial regime had no role to play, the writer in the
new situation had certain responsibilities toward national
objectives. Nine years later Trumboo was appointed professor in the
Department of English Language and Literature. Between 1980 and 1991 Trumboo served as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. In 1995, Thumboo was appointed Professorial Fellow and in 1997 he became an Emeritus Professor. Thumboo was a visiting professor and fellow at universities in the United States, UK, and Australia. Thumboo wrote his first poems in a period when poetry in English started to emerge. His acquaintances included the short story writer Goh Sin Tub, who ran a poetry circle for the magazine Youth. Thumboo's first collection of poetry, Rib of Earth, was privately published in 1956. The book was dedicated to Shamus Frazer, Thumboo's teacher and Senior English Master at Victoria School. A dissenter against British colonial rule, Thumboo wrote in
'Steel': "How can others know my tongue-fire / Agony deprived of
action?" Concerning the role of English language in Singapore Thumboo
has said: "Taking the language increasingly on our terms was and is a
pre-condition for creative freedom. It was their language; now it is
one of ours." ('Singapore Writing in English' by Edwin Thumboo, in Westerly, Vol. 23, No. 2, June 1978, p. 83) While Thumboo has
singled out creativity in English as that which "best represents the
Singaporean," John Kwan-Terry has seen in the poetry in English a
"literature not of arrival but of retreat, not of achieved meaning but
of questioning, and not of certainty, but of doubt, even despite
itself". (The Routledge Concise History of Southeast Asian Writing in English by Rajeev S. Patke and Philip Holden, 2009, p. 120) Thumboo has also published nursery rhymes and edited several anthologies of poetry from Singapore and Malaysia. Thumboo's work has had an important influence on other poets. From his earlier love poetry and exploration of the inner word Thumboo has increasingly turned his attention to cross-cultural themes, social concerns, and the question of national identity. In Literature and Liberation (1988) Thumboo listed five stages of freedoms which small nations have to go through – political, economic, cultural, psychological and linguistic. According to Thumboo, from these five Singapore had achived only the first two by that time. The title poem of Thumboo's Ulysses by the Merlion
(1979), in which Homeric themes of wandering intertwine with the
mythical icon for Singapore, has been put on a plaque at Merlion Park:
"... But this lion of the sea / Salt-maned, scaly, wondrous of tail, /
Touched with power, insistent / On this brief promontory... Puzzles. .
. ." Ulysses, a young Singaporean male, is a divided character: he
is loyal to his homeland but his passion for traveling only takes him
further away from his home. Critics quickly drew comparisons between
the poet himself and the narrator, who "Met strange people singing /
New myths; made myths myself." Soon after the publication of the
collection Thumboo said that "I feel that a poet has a
double responsibility. One is his responsibility to have a function
within his society, but to remain a poet. It involves some sacrifices
of inner voices." (Responsibility and Commitment: The Poetry of Edwin Thumboo by Tiang Hong Ee, edited by Leong Liew Geok, 1997, p. 46) In Gods Can Die (1977) Thumboo revised poems and
republished sections he liked. 'Walking My Baby Back Home' took
its title from a song by Nat King Cole. Instead of focusing on
the natural world, the emphasis is on the urban, industrialized
society. Although
Thumboo expresses his nostalgia for the earlier,
simplier lifestyle of Singapore, feelings of loss are combined
with a sense of confidence in the future of the nation: "The City
is what we make it. / You and I. We are the City." In a lament on the
death of a friend after a motor-cycle accident, 'For Peter Wee,'
Thumboo contemplates the purpose of life: "Is there any pulse or ripple
/ Beyond the ash, anything that matters / Or just a lipless sleep /
where the teeth are shutters?" In the 1990s, Thumboo turned into Christianity. Still Traveling, his sixth book of poems, came out in 2008. It has been decribed as his "most manifest attempt to reclaim his private voice". ('Understanding Edwin Thumboo' by Gwee Li Sui, in Asiatic, Volume 7, Number 2, December 2013, p. 162) Ayatana (2019), published by National Gallery Singapore, examined intersections between the verbal and the visual. The Buddhist term āyatana means "entrance" for consciousness and mental phenomena. Consciousness is always supported by two elements: a cognitive faculty and a corresponding objective element. (The Central Conception of Buddhism and the Meaning of the Word "Dharma" by Th. Stcherbatsky, 1988, p. 8) Thumboo's many awards include National Book Development Council of Singapore Award for poetry (1978, 1980, 1994), the Southeast Asia Write Award (1979), the Cultural Medallion for Literature in Singapore (1980), the Asean Cultural and Communication Award (Literature) in 1987, Public Service Star (BBM) in 1981 and 1991. Thumboo was in 1988 a member of the Neustadt International Prize jury. His candidate, Raja Rao, became the tenth laureate of the prestigious prize. Thumboo received the Raja Rao Award in 2002 for his contributions to the literature of the Indian diaspora. Thumboo is married to Yeo Swee Ching; they have two children. For further reading: The Votive Pen: Writings on Edwin Thumboo by Nilanjana Sengupta (2020); The Routledge Concise History of Southeast Asian Writing in English by Rajeev S. Patke and Philip Holden (2009); 'Of New Covenants and Nationalisms: Christianity and The Poetry of Edwin Thumboo and Lee Tzu Pheng,' by R. B. H. Goh, in Ariel: A Review of International English Literature, Vol. 34; Part 2/3 (2003); 'Note of Resistance and Reconciliation in the Poetry of Edwin Thumboo,' by P.K. Singh, in The Literary Criterion, Vol. 37; Part 3/4 (2002); Ariels: Departures & Returns: Essays for Edwin Thumboo, edited by Tong Chee Kiong et al. (2001); Responsibility & Commitment: The Poetry of Edwin Thumboo by Ee T. Hong and Leong L. Geok (1997); English in New Cultural Contexts: Reflections from Singapore, ed. by J. Foley et al. (1988) Selected works:
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