Friday, February 12, 2010

Tristram Twist


Hello everyone,
Listed below are Pallavi's poems that were published in Literary Paritantra (Systems): An International Journal on Literature and Theory, vol. 1, nos 3 & 4, Autumn, 2009. The home page of the site is http://www.literaryparitantra.com/LPHome.html.
It has taken a great deal of persuasion to make Pallavi agree for these to be put up on the blog. So, send in your comments and congratulations directly to her at pallavi.narayan@tandfindia.com
Shafina

Pallavi Narayan
Tristram Twist
 
T  H  E  
 
L   I   F   E  
 
A  N  D  
 
O P I N I O N S  
 
O F  
 
TRISTRAM SHANDY,  
G E N T L E M A N  
 
 
Tarassei tous Anthropous ou ta Pragmata,  
alla ta peri ton Pragmaton, Dogmata 
 
V O L. I  
 
THE THIRD EDITION 
 
L O N D O N  
 
Printed for R. and J. DODSLEY in Pall-Mall.  
M.DCC.LX.  
 
 
Consider my life and opinions —  
so Tristram said, and in his  
autobiography we read a multiplicity  
of Shandy dominions, one in  
another's vicinity, chock-full  
of digressions and Tristram's  
visions and views of his family.  
Walter Shandy looms large with  
his Tristra-paedia, a halter  
on the poor boy's educational growth,  
one which he appears to have  
overcome with élan, as we see  
from the plan of the many  
volumes of digressive-progressive  
... what shall we call it — a novel,  
a book, a hobby horse, a something  
regressive, as were Uncle Toby's  
military fortifications, urged on  
by Trim, metaphors for conquering  
nations in the clear eye of  
Widow Wadman, who with a speck of dirt  
real or pretended, captured Toby's  
heart distended. However, easily  
revoked the proposal, after the  
long tussle over the exact location  
of the ... hush, should I mention it,  
for fear dainty ears will be offended.  
Nay, it was the groin, which leads us  
back to baby Tristram's whine when  
circumcised by the sash of a window,  
he wailed as loud as when the nose,  
(which is, by the by, a phallic symbol)  
was flattened by Slop's forceps, then  
rebuilt with a bridge which mirrored  
the seige Toby was involved in, the one  
he didn't win. And Tristram, to flee  
Death, traipsed over Europe, fled  
the burgeoning number of Tristrams,  
rejoiced in his blossoming wisdoms  
at recognizing this phenomenon, and  
before the fascination with my own  
art gets to me, I'll here end  
this tiny history, of fastidious  
gallantry, a couple of blank pages,  
Sterne's genius and the protagonist's  
rising obsession with his own insanity.  
For the mind is a maze, with several  
false starts and stoppages, and may laze  
on events we would most like to forget,  
and muse on those that haven't occurred yet.  
 
Tristram Shandy was written in nine volumes between 1759 and 1767 by Lawrence Sterne.


No comments: