Soso Tham (1873-1940), the acknowledged poet laureate of the Khasis of northeastern India, was one of the first writers to give written poetic form to the rich oral tradition of his people. Poet of landscape, myth and memory, Soso Tham paid rich and poignant tribute to his tribe in his masterpiece T...

Preface

Livres et chapitres d'ouvrages

Mark Turin et al. (2018)

Livres et chapitres d'ouvrages

The World Oral Literature Series was established to serve two primary goals. First, by publishing in a range of innovative digital platforms, the series would challenge and change the shape, format and reach of academic publishing to connect important scholarship with a distributed global readership...

Acknowledgements

Autres

Soso Tham et al. (2018)

Autres

Without Mark Turin this book would still be hovering in the realms of maybe and perhaps. So thank you Mark for your guidance and support which led me to Open Book Publishers where I have received only patience, kindness, and care.My family in India have been unstinting in their love and belief in me...

1. Introduction

Livres et chapitres d'ouvrages

Soso Tham et al. (2018)

Livres et chapitres d'ouvrages

Then will the rivers of our homeland tear the hills apartThe year is 1935. The event, at least for literature in Khasi, is momentous. A man diminutive in stature but with a voice that cradled the vast soul of his people had decided to do what he knew best. He completed a classic in Khasi literature...

2. A Short Biographical Note

Livres et chapitres d'ouvrages

Soso Tham et al. (2018)

Livres et chapitres d'ouvrages

Soso Tham, 1873–1940In 1841 a Welshman named Thomas Jones arrived in the Khasi Hills of North East India, bringing with him the message of the Christian gospel. It was to better serve the aims of his mission that Jones decided to use the Roman script in order to set down the Khasi language in writin...

3. Khasi Folktales About Darkness and Light

Livres et chapitres d'ouvrages

Soso Tham et al. (2018)

Livres et chapitres d'ouvrages

Long, long ago before anyone can remember, there was a Time we now call the Ancient Past. She holds and protects all the days that once were young but have now grown old, that once were new, but now have aged. No one has ever seen her, but we all know her. Khasis call her Myndai or Ki Sngi Barim — t...

4. Ki Symboh Ksiar—Grains of Gold

Livres et chapitres d'ouvrages

Soso Tham et al. (2018)

Livres et chapitres d'ouvrages

The opening lines of Ki Sngi Barim U Hynñiew Trep explain why Soso Tham decided to compose his magnum opus. Saddened by the fact that his people continued to look elsewhere for inspiration while failing to appreciate the cultural wealth into which they are born, he set out to reclaim and record the...

5. Ka Persyntiew–The Flower Garden

Livres et chapitres d'ouvrages

Soso Tham et al. (2018)

Livres et chapitres d'ouvrages

Evocative of Eden, this section describes the haunting beauty of Tham’s homeland. Although the Khasi and Jaiñtia Hills have been plundered for their forest and mineral wealth there still remain large tracts that are heartbreakingly beautiful, able to stir wonder today as they did in the distant past...

6. Pyrthei Mariang–The Natural World

Livres et chapitres d'ouvrages

Soso Tham et al. (2018)

Livres et chapitres d'ouvrages

The natural descriptions here are just as beautiful as in the preceding section but the poignancy is sharpened because they are set down in a mood of sad recollection. This is why the poet begins this section with a plea for inspiration as he seeks to fulfill his task of restoring the wonder and vir...

7. U Lyoh–The Cloud

Livres et chapitres d'ouvrages

Soso Tham et al. (2018)

Livres et chapitres d'ouvrages

This is the point to which the preceding sections have been journeying. Here we come upon an utterly bleak apocalyptic scene which Soso Tham fears will replace the green fecundity and harmony of his homeland if Khasis betray the Laws and Truths with which they came into this world. Soso Tham’s drama...

8. U Rngiew–The Dark One

Livres et chapitres d'ouvrages

Soso Tham et al. (2018)

Livres et chapitres d'ouvrages

Scenes from myth along with multiple images of terror and menace are used to describe how the twisted nature of evil wreaks moral havoc. Here is a place that is dark and forbidding where the deadening sense of miasmic heat and torpor is inescapable. Images of sick elephants tottering helplessly into...

9. U Simpyllieng–The Rainbow

Livres et chapitres d'ouvrages

Soso Tham et al. (2018)

Livres et chapitres d'ouvrages

Out of relentless darkness hope emerges and here we begin to feel the calm benediction of light. Although the rainbow as a symbol of hope is appropriate in any culture, in the rain-lashed Khasi Hills where the Monsoon exults in unleashing its power, the colours of the rainbow arcing against freshly...

10. Ka Ïing I Mei–Home

Livres et chapitres d'ouvrages

Soso Tham et al. (2018)

Livres et chapitres d'ouvrages

A more literal translation of the title is “The House that Belongs to my Mother” or “My Mother’s Home”. Here “Mei” refers both to the biological mother and to the poet’s homeland, for both have nurtured the poet’s being. With the dawn of hope and light in the preceding section it is natural that the...

11. Ka Meirilung–Gentle Motherland

Livres et chapitres d'ouvrages

Soso Tham et al. (2018)

Livres et chapitres d'ouvrages

In the plaintive lyrical opening of this section Soso Tham asks that most human of questions — Where do we come from? For the Khasi the answer still lies in conjecture. Meanwhile they suffer the humiliation of forced identities which are at best perplexing, and at worst humiliating. It is from these...

12. Lum Lamare–Lamare Peak

Livres et chapitres d'ouvrages

Soso Tham et al. (2018)

Livres et chapitres d'ouvrages

This section is a dreamlike meandering through memory, myth, reflection and the immediacy of experience found in the simple pleasures of daily life. It is an account alive with movement marked by telling image and detail. Tham names flowers, waterfalls and rivers not only because he delights in them...

13. Ka Aïom Ksiar–Season of Gold

Livres et chapitres d'ouvrages

Soso Tham et al. (2018)

Livres et chapitres d'ouvrages

Should one wish to compare Ki Sngi Barim U Hynñiew Trep to a musical form, the polyphonic fugue would perhaps be its closest relative. In keeping with the poet’s own longings and ultimate hope for a new world, it is the soaring melody of hope that is sustained throughout. At the same time Soso Tham’...

Bibliography

Bibliographies

Soso Tham et al. (2018)

Bibliographies

Deakin, Roger, Wildwood: A Journey through Trees (London: Penguin Books, 2008).Dkhar, Alvareen, Na U Kpa Sha U Khun (Shillong: Shandora Press, self-published, 2013).May, Andrew, Welsh Missionaries and British Imperialism: The Empire of Clouds in North-east India (Manchester and New York: Manchester...