Re: [Goanet] An Ode to Joseph Furtado (by Augusto Pinto)
2009/3/31 Hartman de Souza hartman.deso...@gmail.com Derek Antao was a legendary English teacher at SIES College, Mumbai, and a well known playwright of the late 60s and early 70s whose plays were published in a little theatre journal coming out of Delhi, called Enact. I would appreciate some information on Derek Antao and a chance to stage a retrospective of his plays. Google, of course! Derek Antao was published by Writer's Workshop, the P.Lal-run Calcutta-based one man organisation that published nearly 3000 books in its lifetime. (Some people I know dismiss it as a vanity publishing outfit, yet so many Goan writers got their early breaks there... or would have died unsung.) The Open Library [http://openlibrary.org/] is another interesting venture, which allows us to honour Goa's achievers in the written word. Please see the links to Antao there (still awaiting completion): Give us this day a black sheep by Derek Antao Published in 1980, Writers Workshop, sole agents, Indus (Calcutta, Glastonbury, Conn) http://openlibrary.org/b/OL3927430M/Give-us-this-day-a-black-sheep Derek Antao [edit] 1936 - 2002 Derek Antao, dramatist, retired as Head of the Department of English, SIES College of Arts and Science, University of Mumbai, in 1996. Author of 14 plays, of which one has been published by the Writers Workshop (Give Us This Day Our Black Sheep) and Acushla, was published in the magazine Enact. His plays include Requiem For a Professor, Rock a Bye My Broken Doll, Vannakam Appa, And Then - Diwali, Let There Be Light, Cogito Ergo Sum, Yellow Fever, College I see You as an Open Mouth, Tabula Rasa, Autumn Serenade and Faria.Most of these plays, except the two published ones cited above exist only as Manuscripts. A Brief Review of some of his plays has appeared in the Journal of the School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies (JSL), Spring 2007. http://openlibrary.org/a/OL1598465A/Derek-Antao Rgds, FN -- FN * http://fredericknoronha.wordpress.com M +91-9822122436 P +91-832-2409490 http://twitter.com/fn On Facebook: http://www.new.facebook.com/people/Frederick-Noronha/502514643 I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work. - Thomas Edison
[Goanet] An Ode to Joseph Furtado (by Augusto Pinto)
Dear Augusto, I am also gald that I waited in putting this out since now I have seen a couple of comments, particularly happy to read the rare Jose Pereira's post--and that too on Joseph Furtado. It was invigorating to read Furtado questioning identity as in--Indian and Goan. Rigtly so. Perhaps the words Faltam assuntos? Certamente não[Are subjects lacking ? Certainly not]!-- is something that we should carry forward in our minds when we hear the often repeated, What can I do? Perhaps that could be the title of a book on his collated works. But, having read some of JFs works, put a small post on GN on 02/18/08, I was hapy to see your piece provide a context to his life. Thank you. This will happen. Lets talk face to face next month. In the meanwhile trust me and collate the works. Lets also talk about a preface and accompanying essays. Other than you, are there serious Joseph Furtado scholars OR rather--have people focused on his work. I am aware that JF appears in a few anthologies. I have the one by R. Parthasarathy. I do not feel the statue belongs in Pilerne. Thats just my though. It also does not necessarily belong in the city. It would be ideal if a mainstream publisher or two was given first dibs. Lets bring Hartman de Souza in on this. (Hartman scream if you want out--which I doubt). Perhaps VM would be interested too in being a part of this. I will talk to him. ++++++++ Dear People, What do you think about making this happen. A response on your part will not be construed as a invitation to solicit money, other than to see whether it resonates with your sense of being Goan. Quite cheap really. However, contribution will not be turned away. It would be good to hear from those who are interested in contributing, either for the statue or the book or both. In any case I would like to make this possible. Lets hear what the goodwill sounds like. More later. venantius j pinto From: Goanet Reformat goanet.refor...@gmail.com Subject: [Goanet] An Ode to Joseph Furtado (by Augusto Pinto) An Ode to Joseph Furtado By Augusto Pinto pinto...@gmail.com There is no statue to mark the memory of Joseph Furtado. A pity; for his patrician looks and his long flowing beard would have made a fine figure. The house in Pilerne where he passed his childhood is in ruins. Only a few of the oldest residents have any recollection of him and fewer are aware that he was one of the finest Indian English poets of his time. We are fortunate that many of his poems still survive -- though they only just survive in a few slim volumes in Central Library's rare book section. (del) One way of honouring Joseph Furtado would be to erect a statue to him. But the poet himself would surely have appreciated it more if a fresh collection of his best works were brought out and bought by every lover of Goa. However, who will pay the printer?
[Goanet] An Ode to Joseph Furtado (by Augusto Pinto)
Augusto/Venantius, I'm happy to join this campaign to honour Joseph Furtado. Some years back, The Other India Press, Goa, reprinted Lambert Mascarenhas' Sorrowing Lies my Land. Wouldn't they be interested in taking this up? Worth asking them it seems to me... Does anyone out there know what happened to the many plays in English written by the late Derek Antao? Derek Antao was a legendary English teacher at SIES College, Mumbai, and a well known playwright of the late 60s and early 70s whose plays were published in a little theatre journal coming out of Delhi, called Enact. I would appreciate some information on Derek Antao and a chance to stage a retrospective of his plays. Cheers, Hartman
Re: [Goanet] An Ode to Joseph Furtado (by Augusto Pinto)
Joseph Furtado [1841-1947], it needs to be noted, was a pioneer not only in his use of English, but also as one of the first, if not the very first, inquirers into the nature of the Goan identity. Writing in the twenties, Furtado observed that None of our poets has been Goan in his poetic compositions. Paulino Dias [1874-1919] and Nascimento Mendonça [1884-1926] were more Indian than Goan. As for me, I am still a beginner in the Portuguese language; the verses here do not pass for more than mere humorous attempts. However my book, Goan Fiddler [1927]... contains many serious verses in English on Goan matters. Let my fellow-countrymen write sincerely and well on our native subjects, and I assure them a sure reputation. Why do they wish to cross oceans in search of subjects? [Porque é que querem atravessar oceanos em busca de assuntos?] Principais poetas goanos (um estudo critico), 1927. Or, as he remarks in another place, Faltam assuntos? Certamente não[Are subjects lacking ? Certainly not]! José Pereira.
Re: [Goanet] An Ode to Joseph Furtado (by Augusto Pinto)
Nice to know Joseph Furtado, a poet . Thanks, silvia
[Goanet] An Ode to Joseph Furtado (by Augusto Pinto)
An Ode to Joseph Furtado By Augusto Pinto pinto...@gmail.com There is no statue to mark the memory of Joseph Furtado. A pity; for his patrician looks and his long flowing beard would have made a fine figure. The house in Pilerne where he passed his childhood is in ruins. Only a few of the oldest residents have any recollection of him and fewer are aware that he was one of the finest Indian English poets of his time. We are fortunate that many of his poems still survive -- though they only just survive in a few slim volumes in Central Library's rare book section. It is curious that a boy coming from a literary back-land could turn out to be a poet -- and that too in English. Philip Furtado, his son, in a biographical note in the 1983 Journal of South Asian Literature's Special Issue on Goan Literature, wrote that after passing the primeiro grau [the Portuguese primary school exam] and apart from a year at a Latin school in Saligao, his early education was conducted mainly at home. Perhaps this was a good thing, for Joseph was known to be a sensitive child and the aesthetic tastes he was to develop may well have been crushed by the drudgery of a mechanical schooling. Incidentally Furtado was also to write poetry in Portuguese. Later Furtado was to make a switch to a third language, when he was enrolled at the English medium St. Francis of Sales School in Nagpur for two years followed by an eight month stint at Sir J. J. School of Art in Bombay. In 1890, he joined the Great Indian Peninsular Railway at Jubbulpore [as it was spelt then] and went on to become a draughts-man in the Engineer's office, a fairly important position. It was during this period that he began to read the classics of world literature and subsequently began writing. He published his first collection of poems in 1910 and by 1927, when A Goan Fiddler was published in England, he already had four volumes of poems to his credit. A Goan Fiddler had a preface by Sir Edmund Gosse, the most influential critic in England at that time, and the book received warm reviews. Furtado, then published The Desterrado (1929); Songs of Exile (1938) and Selected Poems (1939) besides a historical novel Golden Goa (1938). For a man to whom it was not even a second but a third language, Furtado had a remarkable ear for the sounds of English. In this he is unlike most Indian poets, who prefer to work with images; and only a Sarojini Naidu can come close to match him this respect. Listen to the music of 'At Break of Day': At break of day In pleasant spring When on each spray The blithe birds sing While half awake In bed you lie And one kiss take Of her close by ... Only a master of rhyme, rhythm and meter could be so felicitous and using this gift, Furtado was capable of transcribing the sounds emanating from his Indian environment into his verses. In 'The Brahmin Girl' for instance, he observes: Mohini sweet, Mohini neat So maddening to behold With *kinning chinning* round her feet And *fas fis* of the fold. [emphasis added] Keki N. Daruwalla in his 'Introduction' to the influential anthology of Indian English poetry, Ten Twentieth Century Indian Poets, points out that Furtado was the first to see the potential of using 'Indian' English in poetry. When using a pidgin or a patois there is always the risk that the poet may end up sounding like an English-educated snob sniggering away at less fortunate people struggling to make their way in the world using an alien language. Even Nissim Ezekiel, the doyen of Indian English poets fell into this trap in his well known 'Farewell to Miss Pushpa T.' or in the following lines from 'The Professor'. If you are coming again this side by chance Visit please my humble residence also I am living just on opposite house's backside. Furtado avoids sounding condescending because of his ability to get under the skin of his dramatis personae often using a technique called the dramatic monologue. In 'The Old Irani' the speaker is ranting at his milk vendor who waters down the milk: Sly rogue, the old Irani Has made a lakh they say A lakh in land and money By mixing milk and pani What if she bolt away The young Madame Irani With all the fellow's money Beware now Abdul Gani Beware of Kala Pani And meddle not with money Like many a Goan, Furtado had to seek his fortune far away from the land of his birth and his work in the Railways took him to Nagpur, Calcutta and Bombay among other places. But Mother Goa was always close to his heart, leading Prof. Lucio Rodrigues to call him 'the Poet of Exile'. Gosse in his 'Introduction' to A Goan Fiddler wrote,I do not know where else to look for an expression of the landscape, the
