{"id":18948,"date":"2017-01-05T17:17:14","date_gmt":"2017-01-05T16:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.revuenoire.com\/en\/?p=18948"},"modified":"2022-11-09T12:16:06","modified_gmt":"2022-11-09T11:16:06","slug":"wole-soyinka-nigeria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revuenoire.com\/en\/wole-soyinka-nigeria\/","title":{"rendered":"Wole SOYINKA – Nigeria"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n\t

\"Wole<\/a>
\n\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>
\nWole Soyinka was the first african writer to receive the Nobel prize in literature in 1986. Born in Nigeria in 1934, Wole Soyinka is a fecund dramatic writer.
\nAmidst his well known plays : \u2019A Danse of the Forests\u2019 1960, \u2019The Swamp Dwellers 1958, The Trials of Brother Jero\u2019 1959, \u2019The Road\u2019 1965 or the last one \u2019King Baadu\u2019 2001.
\nWole Soyinka is also a writer of novels, \u2019The Interpreters\u2019 1964, \u2019The Man Died, \u2019Saison of Anomy\u2019 1972
\nand poems.<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Doctored Vision<\/span><\/h1>\n

[<\/span>published in RN 04 in March 1992,\u00a0<\/span>original text written in English-Nigeria]<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>
\nSubmissive to the year\u2019s contraints
\nThe poet tries again the optician\u2019s expertise.
\nThe placard test begins. One eye
\nObeys all semiotic tests. The other
\nBlurs the dots, rapes simple\u2019rithmetic -
\nThe mind can only total what it separates -
\nBut spots the gnat slow-crawling on the lens\u2019eye.
\n\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>
\nNext, the literacy test - \u201cWe\u2019ll try this board
\nShall we ? Start with the topmost line.\u201d
\nThe errant eye discerns, at best,
\nA charming alphabestiary. \u201cK\u201d
\nFlaunts wings, \u201cR\u201d wags a furry taill,
\n\u201cH\u201d sprouts corns, \u201cF\u201d is unicorn.
\nRabbit ears adorn the simple \u201cU\u201d while udders
\nDroop from \u201cW\u201d. \u201cC\u201d has long closed ranks -
\nHe thinks of flawed \u201cO\u201d rings - \u201cAm I
\nDoomed to crash from vaulting vision ?\u201d
\n\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>
\nThe left eye, boastful, reads in sync.
\nThe micro-printing on the bottom line
\nBut find the page, close held,
\nA mindless hieroglyphic smear !
\n\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>
\nThe doctor frowns, tugs at his lower lip.
\nHis scrutiny suggests a catch -
\n\u201cThey are BOTH your eyes ?
\nI know of no eye-transplant in entirety
\n\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>
\nHis sigh is terminal ; he tells the poet
\nWhat other clinics had long diagnosed -
\n\u201cShort-sighted in one eye, long in the other.\u201d
\nThe poet waits, the explosion came on cue -
\n\u201cBut not within the limits we call natural !
\nA little difference, that\u2019s the norm, but this !
\nThese sir, belong to different pairs of eyes.\u201d
\n\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>
\nShrunken shanks, hoary head
\nWill I look cute in monocles ?
\n\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>
\nThe poet plants, he hopes, a veto on
\nThe optican\u2019s line of thought.
\n\u201cI hate bi-focals !\u201d The doctor\u2019s laugh
\nIs bitter. \u201cYour case sir, goes beyond
\nBi-focal remedy. Christ ! You think I spend
\nThree hours one every client ? With eyes like yours
\nNo one could stay in business. A squint
\nWould make some sense, because your eyes sir,
\nAre at war with one another. They harmonise
\nAt certain magic intervals - don\u2019t ask me how !
\nThey are your eyes, not mine - or so you claim.\u201d
\nA sharp, derisive snort affirms the doubt.
\n\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>
\nMagic intervals ? The patient feels consoled,
\nNo longer isolated as a visual freak.
\n\u201cThat sound poetic\u201d he reflects - \u201cHarmonise
\nAt magic intervals ? All other clinics
\nDiagnose a bane. None, till now,
\nHas found a virtue in my visual cross.
\nYou make it sound akin to poetic vision.
\n\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>
\nThe doctor\u2019s voice is strained. My cross sir,
\nIs to find the right prescription for your sight
\nMyopia, astigmatism - those modes of vision
\nFill me register. There is NO poetic vision !\u201d
\n\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>
\nThe buzzer from front desk recalls him
\nTo his waiting clients. His shoulders sag.
\n\u201ccome back tomorrow. I may summon
\nA second opinion. The receptionist will find
\nA vacant slot, I hope. A slot ? Best make it
\nThree. Or five. Maybe we should allot
\nOne entire morning to your case. Yes,
\nA second opinion. Two heads are better than one.\u201d
\n\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>
\nHis laugh, the patient thinks, sounds faintly
\nManic. \u201cHa ha... two heads... ha, in your case
\nHow true ! Four eyes, the perfect answer...
\nSixteen combinations - that should cover
\nAll your magic intervals.\u201d
\n\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>
\nBehind the doctor\u2019s antiseptic stare
\nThe patient reads experimental lust
\nAnd flees the clinic, never return.
\nToday he roams the streets, surviving
\nOn his own prescription :
\nOne eye-patch woven of gossamer skeins
\n\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>
\nImages of New Clothes for the Emperor.
\nAnd for the other eye, a conjured prism, herding
\nRiots of signals into a parsimonious
\nLyric impetus, spaced, at magic intervals.
\n\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Wole Soyinka
\n[in 'Mandela's Earth and other poems', Ibadan Publisher, Nigeria]<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wole Soyinka, first literature Nobel price to an African writer from Nigeria. ‘Doctored Vision ‘ is an extract from ‘Mandela’s Earth and other poems’.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[250,64],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revuenoire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18948"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revuenoire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revuenoire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revuenoire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revuenoire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18948"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.revuenoire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22572,"href":"https:\/\/www.revuenoire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18948\/revisions\/22572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revuenoire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revuenoire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revuenoire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}