Like the praise poet in the oral tradition, Kaqila tried to mingle with subtle protests or denials when she heroically described the train: the train was a vicious, black little thing, which took my brother away and was never heard from again. I was filled with indignation, tears welled up in my eyes and flowed down my cheeks like a river. I stood there crying sadly!
It is worth noting that this poem depicts the product series of modern technology. Although Kachira writes in his mother tongue (Soto) and keeps in touch with the tradition of Soto's ode, he chooses a modern theme to prove the adaptability of this tradition and its continuous relevance to modern life.
Ugandan poet alcott? Pedek also recorded similar achievements in his songs, the most famous of which is the Song of Lavino. Until the death of 1982, Orcott believed in the vitality of oral tradition. Some of his colleagues include Taban? Luo? Taban Lo Li Yong complained that East Africa is still a "literary desert" compared with West Africa, but alcott replied that critics like Taban suffer from some kind of "literary deafness".
Although Orcott attended several of the best universities in Britain (Bristol, Oxford, etc. ), he still maintains a strong connection with the local agoli tradition, and devotes himself to the study of the local belief system and the translation of oral literature. Even if he writes poems in English, he tries to be as close to all forms of Aguri as possible, so as to prove that there are enough resources in the local tradition to deal with any subject.
Song of Lavino is Orcott's first attempt. He wrote a poem called "Wer paLawino" in Cogley. But in order to increase the distribution, it may be the same as khaqila. This poem is a work of social criticism, closely imitating agoli's tradition of condemning poetry.
A young woman (Lavinaud) complains and denounces her well-educated husband (Okur) because he neglected himself for his fashionable urban mistress (Clementine). Her condemnation is not only directed at her husband and his lover, but also at the western civilization that took her husband away from the growing tradition. As Heron revealed, it was quickly translated into English.
Although the English translation of this poem fails to fully capture the lyrical beauty of agoli's original work, Orcott is as close to the traditional tone and image as possible. For example, when Ravinaud described the kiss between O 'Cole and Clementine, he showed rudeness and contempt. You kiss her cheek like a white man, you kiss her open lips like a white man, and you suck the sticky saliva in each other's mouths like a white man.
From this, we can see the repetitive structure of African traditional poetry. Helen pointed out how this poem borrowed a lot of images from agoli's traditional poems. For example, in the traditional poem recorded in The Horn of Love, Okot has the image of a spear: a sharp and hard spear makes it split granite, and a spear I trust makes it split granite. The hunter has fallen asleep in the wilderness, and I'm going to die, oh!
In Song of Lavino, this image appears repeatedly and has a strong response. Until the end of the poem, Lavinaud urges her husband to reconcile with the local traditional support forces. Ask them for forgiveness, ask them to give you a new spear, a sharp spear, a spear that can split stones, and find a spear that you can trust.
Ravinaud's complaint is a protest against the shortcomings of contemporary African society. No matter what the western civilization he mocked and the tradition he supported, these complaints were deafening. The sarcastic tone is very effective; Orcott convincingly proved that native language expression can completely express new ideas and reproduce new habits from the perspective of protagonist choice.
The boundary between the transformation and utilization of oral literature tradition is not clear, but it is worth noting. In the process of transformation, the traditional content and form can be clearly distinguished. For example, the fantasy world presented in Tu Tu Ola's works is similar to the story in oral tradition.
In The Marriage of Ansawa, the swindler is still called Anse, and the spider's web occasionally enters the story scene, which helps to render the theme that the swindler's cunning leads to complicated relations. However, modern writers are selective in the use of oral traditional elements. The relationship between the expression form of modern writers and oral tradition is limited; That is to say, familiar roles are used, but the roles are in unfamiliar environments or the relationship order is changed.
What attracts writers to seek the help of oral tradition is not so much the physical factors of performance as the basic concepts contained in it, which are considered to have lasting relevance. Different degrees of subtlety. Is there one aspect you can learn from Chinua? Archie's novels.
Although the novel mainly shows the social reality of the Igbo people (past and present), it is not clear that Achebe himself organizes the novel structure according to any fable we know, but he still uses many traditional contents and techniques of oral literature in his works. One of them is a proverb. In Disintegration, he told us: "Among the Igbo people, the art of conversation is highly valued. The proverb is palm oil dipped in words when eating."
Therefore, in Achebe's novels with Igbo as the background, characters (especially adult men) will use these carefully selected witticisms to polish their own language very freely in the dialogue.
The art of talking or public speaking is marked not only by the widespread use of proverbs, but also by the selective use of stories. In Archie's Arrow of God, the confrontation between traditional culture and European civilization creates a tragic tense atmosphere, but stories and songs appear from time to time in the book, especially women and children sitting in the yard for entertainment at night, which brings necessary respite to the tense atmosphere.
The following passage shows how Ezeulu used proverbs and stories to tell the fate of a wayward son in the clan during his conversation with two ethnic groups, thus clarifying a moral lesson in the form of explanatory fables. Ezulu didn't speak until the end. He silently saluted Umm Arlo, with a sad face.
“Umm Anok Venu！” "Hum!" "Umarno Ou Bo Dunica Vinu!" "Hum!" "Kwai Zuenu!" "Hum!" "The reed we played was crushed. Just two days ago in the market, I used a proverb when I spoke. I said, an adult can't tie a ewe to a rope and let her give birth indoors.
At that time, I was talking to Ogilvy? OgbuefiEgonwanne speaks. He is an adult in the room. I told him that he should speak against our plan instead of putting a piece of red-hot carbon in the child's palm and telling him to hold it carefully. We all saw how carefully he held it. At that time, I was not just talking about Igawa, but all the adults here. They gave up their duties and did another thing. They stayed in the house, but the ewe suffered childbirth. "
"Once upon a time there was a great wrestler whose back never touched the ground. He went from village to village and knocked all his opponents to the ground. So he decided to wrestle with the gods and won the championship, defeating every god who came to fight. Some gods have seven heads, others have ten heads, but he defeated all the gods. His companion played flute and sang hymns, begging him to leave, but he refused.
People begged him, but his ears were nailed. Instead of going home, he challenged the gods to send the best and strongest wrestlers to fight. So, the gods sent his personal god, who caught him with only one hand and threw him to the stone-covered ground. "
"Wu Arnold people, you think about it, why do our parents want to tell us this story? They tell this story to tell us that no matter how powerful and great a person is, he should not challenge his protector. This is what our people do, challenging their own protectors. We played the flute for him, but we didn't pray for him to stay away from death.
Where is he now? Flies without advice will only follow the body to the grave. But let's put Akouka Leah aside; He has fulfilled God's command. "As can be seen from the above example, although Achebe selectively uses the national oral literature resources, we can still see the physical factors that appear in the tradition he borrowed. However, these factors are not so obvious at a more subtle level of utilization.
In fact, modern writers use oral traditions on the basis that they can realize that times have changed. Although driven by cultural pride, they identify with their own national heritage, the painful facts of contemporary life, especially when the tradition itself presents a world view that writers may not recognize, force them to reorganize these cultural heritage in a way that is far or near to the tradition. In any case, at this level, oral tradition has turned to the use of metaphor or symbol, rather than copying it as it is.