Hamlet’s soliloquy reveals the anguish of a young man in the midst of great turmoil and shows the hard road to self-discovery and full realization of one’s duty. From soliloquy to soliloquy we witness the young prince’s spiritual growth up to the point where he finally understands that he will have to die to purge his world:

“Not a whit, we defy augury: there’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ’tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all: since no man has aught of what he leaves, what is’t to leave betimes?” (Act 5, Scene 2)

This is why he is considered as a Christ-like figure. Now compare and contrast the 2 texts (the original and the Mauritian version) and comment on the power of the Mauritian language to say what Shakespeare had to say.

HAMLET: To be, or not to be, that is the question,
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover’d country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action. (Act 3 Scene 1)

VERSION MORISIEN

Monolog Hamlet li montre touman enn zenn dimoun ki pe fer fas enn tabisman lamerdman e li dir ki kantite li difisil pou konn nou prop profon e dekouver ki nou bizen fer. Monolog apre monolog nou swiv sa zenn prens la so devlopman spiritiel ziska ki li dekouver ki lamor parfwa neseser pou pirifie lemonn.

“Non Horasio. Siperstision, ezitasion kapon pa pou blok mo lelan. Ena lame Bondie ladan. Si ena pou tonbe aster va tonbe aster. Mo swiv mo desten. Personn pa kone ki lamor ete. Kifer nou per?” (Ak 5 Senn 2)

Ala kifer ena kritik dir ki li resanble Zezikri. Etidie ek konpar sa de tex la (version orizinal ek version Morisien) e dir seki ou panse. Eski lang Morisien ena lafors pou dir seki Shakespeare ti dir.

HAMLET: Viv ou aret viv, samem gran kestion –
Eski li meyer fer fas bann maler,
Manz ar tourman, traka ek tourdisman
Ziska ki zot fonn. Ferm lizie, dormi –
Samem tou; servi somey pou efas
Fristrasion, lapenn, bann mizer anvrak
Ki kraz nou kor – ki pli zoli ki sa?
Enn kout sek tou tengn. Ferm lizie, dormi –
Dormi e kikfwa reve. Ayaya!
Samem douk la. Ler lamor finn pran nou
Ki kalite rev vinn fer nou letour?
Sa papa, ki veritab manzer krann.
Akoz samem nou tini-tini mem
Malgre ki toufann chom nou par lagorz;
Nou manz nou margoz, aksepte soufrans
Kan li telman fasil tengn lalimier.
Kifer nou rente, fer fas kriz lor kriz?
Parski personn pa kone ki ena
Lot kote brizan lavi lor later;
Tansion sap dan karay tom dan dife,
Nou bostait, pil anplas. Laverite
Se ki nou krake. Plis nou reflesi
Plis nou gagn tarrtarri e bann gran plan
Anpandan lor lakord.
(Ak 3 Senn 1)

29.08.19

Why is literature important?

1. Because it provides people with healthy leisure;
2. Because it provides an escape route from our dreary existence;
3. Because it provides learning and teaching material to support our efforts to develop national and international literacy skills;
4. Because it tickles the imagination and makes the mind more robust;
5. Because it helps us to feed on the milk of human kindness and grow sympathy and empathy;
6. Because it refines our senses and makes us more human;
7. Because it helps us to refine our sense of intellectual, artistic and spiritual beauty;
8. Because, because, because …

Most importantly, it is a means to make language become a powerful instrument for the expression of thought, experience and emotions.

In his Defence Of Poetry the English poet, P. B. Shelley wrote, inter alia, that poets are the authors of language. This poetic intuition has since been validated by linguists and literary experts such as Terry Eagleton.

Creative writing is the diamond-cutting exercise which transforms a piece of rough stone into a precious stone. Great writers like Chaucer, Shakespeare, Rabelais, Dante Alighieri and Martin Luther are the founding fathers of English, French, Italian and German respectively.

It is now high time for our academics to research the part played by creative writing in the growth of an oral vernacular into a vibrant standard language in Mauritius and Rodriques.

Foreign literature can help the growth of our literature and vice-versa. Translation (both semantic and communicative) is one of humanity’s instruments of sharing and exchange, a cross-border path to friendship and solidarity.

Now enjoy a piece of canon literature by William Blake.

LONDON

I wander through each chartered street,
Near where the chartered Thames does flow,
A mark in every face I meet,
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

In every cry of every man,
In every infant’s cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forged manacles I hear.

How the chimney-sweeper’s cry
Every blackening church appals,
And the hapless soldier’s sigh
Runs in blood down palace-walls.

But most, through midnight streets I hear
How the youthful harlot’s curse
Blasts the new-born infant’s tear,
And blights with plagues the marriage hearse.

Kifer literatir li enportan?

1. Parski li donn dimoun enn pastan bon pou lespri ek lavi;
2. Parski li ed nou bliye lavi rann ki nou pe viv;
3. Parski li donn nou materyo pedagozik ki nou bizen pou devlop konesans lir ek ekrir dan nou lang ek dan lang etranzer;
4. Parski li giji nou limazinasion e fer nou lespri vinn pli solid;
5. Parski li permet nou bwar dile limanite ki ed nou konpran lezot e devlop solidarite ek partaz;
6. Parski li rafinn nou bann sans e sa fer nou vinn ankor plis imen;
7. Parski li ed nou rafinn nou kapasite reflesi, apresie ek konpran bote vizib ek envizib;
8. Parski, parski, parski …

Me plis enportan ki tou, literatir se nou zouti pou fer nou lang vinn enn enstriman mari for pou dir nou panse, nou experyans ek nou emosion.

Dan so liv ‘Defence Of Poetry’ poet Angle P. B. Shelley ti ekrir, parmi lezot zafer, ki bann poet zot bann kreater langaz. Sa entwision poetic la finn gagn rekonesans siyans grasa bann lengwis ek exper dan literatir kouma Terry Eagleton.

Lekritir literer li kouma travay ki kouper diaman fer kan zot tay enn bout ros brit e fer li vinn enn pier presie. Bann gran ekriven kouma Chaucer, Shakespeare, Rabelais, Dante Alighieri ek Martin Luther zot bann papa-fondater lang Angle, Franse, Italien ek Alman dan sa lord la.

Ler finn arrive pou ki bann akademik etidie rol ki lekritir literer finn zwe dan transformasion enn lang oral ki finn vinn enn lang standar mari serye dan Pei Moris ek dan Rodrig.

Literatir lezot pei kapav ed nou literatir kouma nou literatir kapav ed literatir lezot pei. Tradixion semantic ek kominikatif se enn zouti limanite pou partaz ek esanz, enn sime san frontier ver lamitie ek solidarite.

Aster lir version Morisien poem Blake par D. V

PORLWI

Ler mo mars lor lari kapital
Akote larivier liberal,
Mo trouv partou mem sikatris:
Tras febles ek tras tristes.

Dan sak lavwa ki mo tande,
Dan lavwa zanfan ki tranble,
Dan sak diskour, dan sak kontra
Menot mantal pe fer fraka.

Zanfan pe fer travo forse,
Fer miray nwar vinn blan Legliz;
Solda vant vid ar soupire
Miray lerwa pentir anrouz.

Dan lari minwi ekout bien!
To pou tann tifi vann lekor
Modi baba so prop leren;
Modi for-for karos lamor.

Ena 250 an desela Blake, enn poet vizioner, ti denons dega ek ravaz ki system kapitalis ti pe fer dan Langleter.

Eski version Morisien kapav reponn lapel?

29.08.19