Pondering Over A Suicide Note

By Hem Raj Neupane

Hem Raj Neupane

A Suicide Note is an anthology of English poems composed by Gopi Sapkota. Needless to exaggerate, Gopi has earned a promising name in the field of Nepali literature, especially in drama and poetry. Already published over half a dozen of books in Nepali language, his dramas have been broadcast by Radio Nepal and several literary works have been published in different magazines and newspapers in Nepal. However, A Suicide Note, is his first attempt in English, which is published by Lulu Enterprises, UK Ltd.

            

The anthology consists of collection of thirty poems. Although the very title of the book and its layout of cover page could suggest that the collection is all about extreme frustration, suicide and death, his poems are of diverse nature and they serve the menu of various flavours like dreams, love, nature, beauty and so forth. The poet has picked up very ordinary topics for composing his poems, the contents are presented in very ordinary way but the messages they communicate are extraordinary. The poems are full of characters, symbols and images.

            

Undoubtedly, a number of the poems in the anthology contain the theme of death. I think, using the imagery of death, the poet might have tried to demystify the mystery of death and appealed to the readers to embrace it as a natural phenomenon of life. In other words, the poet might have tried to communicate the message that life and death are complementary to each other. He says himself that life is a transition between birth and death and mortality is the absolute reality. The poet in some poems sounds like Harry Scott-Holland in his poem ‘Death is Nothing at all’ where he says death does not count and it is just like slipping away into the next room or like Khali Gibran who expresses:

….If you would indeed behold the spirit of death

Open your heart wide unto the body of life

For life and death are one, even as the

River and sea are one…

(Khalid Gibran, ‘On Death’)

In ‘A Suicide Note’, a poem, which has been used as the title of the anthology, the poet seems to have tried to depict the fragile mentality of those feeble and fugitive characters who feel tired of their lives and wish to commit suicide rather than waiting for their natural death. I think the poet has tried to shed an irony on those characters by inducing them to commit suicide. The poems like ‘Losing me within’, ‘Birth and Death’, ‘The Dreams of Falling Leaf’ and ‘Death on Call’, the poet sounds extremely despondent and frustrated with his present state. That may be the reason he even warns the Death and God not to approach him or else they might get killed in his poem ‘Birth and Death’ almost sounding like Donne. In ‘The Dreams of Falling Leaf’, he is expressed sheer unhappiness about his present state of affairs like this:

…Neither did I fall like this in the past,

Nor will I fall like this in the future…

However, the poems like ‘Dreams’ and ‘December Dreams’ elaborate the optimistic approach to life, whereas, the poems like ‘lust’, ‘Whisper of Zephyr’ express about love and beauty of nature. In ‘Lust’ a symbolic poem he expresses:

…Purer are the naked ones

Standing with skin-coloured trunks

Stretching leafless, bare branches…

On the contrary, ‘Love and Life’ satirises the modern trend of love and marriage which are very short lasting and can break at any time. ‘Visiting the Country Churchyard’; I think is one of the most powerful poems, in which Sapkota has depicted the fate after death of human beings and the vanity of their wealth, name, fame and also about their pride and prejudice. ‘The Shattered Dream’ and ‘The Injured Present’ try to share the pains of the poet who is in the state of extreme agony due to short-sighted political leaders, conflict, war and loss of innocent lives. Thus, whichever the poem, content or theme, the poet has beautifully coined and assembled the words and interwoven them to make a work of live tapestry.

Despite consisting beautiful poems, I feel that the anthology has some limitations as well. I think that there is dominance of dark images which might give the impression of the poet that his poems are the outcome of extreme frustration and negative attitude to life. Similarly, the readers may find contradictory features and themes as they go on turning the pages. Next, I feel that the poet could have given a thought about the ordering of the poems. One example; the last poem ‘Aftermath of Suicide’ appears like an epilogue as if all the previous poems are related to death or suicide. However, I cannot deny the subjective interpretation of the readers that the most proper way of ordering and presenting for one person could appear to be the most improper way for other as the poet himself expresses in his first poem ‘The Creation’. I highly recommend the readers to go through is anthology and enjoy different literary tastes the poet has tried to share.

(Courtesy: Nepalipatra, 23 -29, September, 2014)