Poetry · A way to begin
You, the Choice of My Parents
Konai Helu Thaman · 1974
Synopsis
The author's first collection, it brings together poems written in English. In the poem that gives it its title, a young woman speaks to the man her parents have chosen for her and says that she has no other choice. “Island Fire” evokes “the pages of foreign textbooks” turned slowly, and touches on Western schooling and the gap between generations. The collection also includes “Reality”.
Context
The collection came out in 1974 from Mana Publications, a publisher in Suva, Fiji, which also published the next four, up to 1999. It is among the first published works of written Tongan literature, in the early 1970s, along with those of Epeli Hauʻofa. The title poem gives voice to a woman who sees herself “slowly dying” under family duty. The collection is not translated into French.
Who it is for
For hearing the voice of a Tongan woman, and witnessing the beginnings of the written poetry of Tonga.
Prizes and reception
A founding book of written Tongan poetry; its author received in 2008 the grand cross of a Tongan royal order.
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