Why Modernists should embrace Changampuzha

Contrary to what contemporary Malayalam literature’s mandarins would have us believe, Changampuzha’s ‘romantic’ poetry contains Whitmanesque multitudes, straddles high and low, expresses uncensored emotions and is animated by a pure aesthetic; above all, he never deferred to critics and was unafraid of contradictions
How do you define Changampuzha? It seems you cannot define Changampuzha better than Vailoppilli: ‘…One who pervaded tender graceful fragrance; One on whose cheeks’ tears like jasmine flowers never did stop rolling; One whose long neck is filled with immaculate nectar; One who is desired with love’s dream to be kissed by any shepherdess lass; One who is so delicate and so light; Habituating friendship with tender moonlight…’ How can you describe Changampuzha’s real character as well as poetic character better than this? Quoting from Vailoppilli’s poem at the beginning has a clear intention.
Today, in the literary world, there are people who consider Changampuzha and his Romanticism as felon and felony respectively. One of them has remarked that they are cleaning up the ‘Changampuzha-mud’.
However, though the cleaning has been going on for a few decades, that mud is not going away. Mud is also a life-aiding factor in an eco-system. If it goes away, that will destroy the eco-system itself. Similar is ‘Changampuzha-mud’ in poetry.
This progressive lot in literature are the ones who have denied Changampuzha and accepted Vailoppilli. They say that Vailoppilli has released poetry from over-romanticism and made her walk over the solid ground of scientific understanding. But I am intrigued by the thought that when they recognise what Changampuzha was for that very same Vailoppilli, they will have an afterthought whether that ‘mud’ needs to be washed off.
I also think that those who abuse Changampuzha do not think of themselves as being better than Vailoppilli.
If that is not the case, there is not much left to say.
Nostalgia and sentiment are natural emotions of mind. If the mind exists, you cannot not have those. New thoughts on modern sensibilities cannot expunge them from the mind completely. Poetic endeavours arising from an artificial logic cannot replace them too. That is why Changampuzha stays relevant. Even though many intellectual giants still refuse to accept Changampuzha, the fact remains that no poet who came later excels him. Where lies the natural fountain flowing without any restriction? Where lies water coming out of a tap at regular intervals? This old question remains. It is the difference between the two that exists between Changampuzha’s poetry and the modern poetry which has set out to correct the former.
Even the great Vailoppilli could not distance himself from that spiritual influence. ‘Singing those poems of that / Young blessed bard of Edappally / Then playing with neighbourhood / Maidens by clapping hands / Did you hear my voice distinct / One who enquires that next day’. Else, Vailoppilli would not have asked thus.
Vailoppilli always tried to let his voice be heard distinctly. He has also been satisfactorily successful in that attempt too. But still, Vailoppilli was able to love and respect that spiritual influence. He was able to do that because of his belief in his own poetic prowess. He knew that he can keep his feet steady in the poetic world without berating anyone else. Hence, he was able to accept and respect Changampuzha. Some less skilled poets who lacked that sort of confidence marched onward with curse-words dipped in jealousy. There is the word ‘awe’ in English. It means to witness something with reverence mixed with fear or wonder. The mental state that represents awe is what was held by those modern poets of Malayalam who wanted to become leaders of such a movement.
Romanticism has two major streams. There is one stream that loves life so much but still retains its responsibility to society. Kalidasa, Vallathol and Vailoppilli, all belong to this stream. In the second stream are those who only sometimes love life, but at other times reject it. This is the trend of later Romanticism in Europe. It lacks consistency and Keats and Swinburne belong to this kind. This is more aesthetic, more emotional too. Changampuzha was also a poet of that bipolarity. It was because of that, the consistent credence in those poems quite visibly displayed extraordinary contradictions. If the same sight instilled two different experiences on two separate days, both of those would be sketched exactly as they were felt.
The contradictions between those would not matter to him -‘Dawn, you showed me / Today a celestial nymph’, Changampuzha who writes this one day, the next day writes, ‘Women, women, stylus roots / Of global disaster; hell fires’ He did not attempt to clarify with thought those feelings that arise from sensations and also to elevate those to some serious life perspective. Vailoppilli once remarked that he becomes Changampuzha when he becomes over-emotional. One can understand that being over-emotional is when you actually become a poet. Which means whenever he transforms into a poet, he becomes Changampuzha. It means one needs to deliberately cross that river. It is upon such deliberate attempts in crossing that river, ones like Ayyappa Panicker reached shores like TS Eliot. Vailoppilli could cross the river and arrive at Vailoppilli himself.
Leslie Fiedler in his book ‘Is there a majority literature?’ shattered this same ruse. He asks, “Is the sensibility of a reader who has not acquired technical expertise any lower than one who has acquired that?” He argues that the answer is ‘no’. Changampuzha was a poet of the former kind. That is true. But the latter, can they witness the flow of his words without any wonder? The truth is that it is impossible. Then gradually it becomes clear that Changampuzha was a poet of both kinds, everyone’s poet in fact.
What is also true is that Changampuzha’s poetry never gave in to critics. If not, they would not have collected poems of Edappally and Changampuzha and blanketed it as ‘Edappally-movement’. Where lies Changampuzha’s poetry obsessing over life? Where lies Edappally’s poetry on an aversion to life? One has optimism and the lust of life. The other has pessimist thoughts and sniffs death. How can one assimilate these two?
In conclusion, these two lines of Changampuzha define the poet and his poetry: ‘How many worlds upon meditation / Will once upon a time this voice arrive at / The very best of inner will know well / Its divine greatness inside the heart’.
Prabha Varma, a well-known poet, writer and lyricist, is media advisor to the chief minister of Kerala