{"id":8940,"date":"2014-04-20T17:43:00","date_gmt":"2014-04-20T09:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bukitbrown.com\/main\/?p=8940"},"modified":"2014-06-04T11:46:27","modified_gmt":"2014-06-04T03:46:27","slug":"visiting-khoo-seok-wans-grave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bukitbrown.com\/main\/2014\/visiting-khoo-seok-wans-grave\/","title":{"rendered":"Visiting Khoo Seok Wan’s Grave"},"content":{"rendered":"

by
\nCherlyn Lee Suet Yean<\/p>\n

I am a Junior College\u00a0 student who loves history and writing poetry. To me, history is a grand story\u00a0 with so many interesting details waiting to be discovered. In my free time, I love taking long walks\u00a0 around Singapore, letting my feet absorb the atmosphere of different places. I learn so much about\u00a0 Singapore\u2019s history that way.<\/p>\n

Naturally, I am interested in Bukit Brown because it is full of history. In fact, I went there earlier this year. But amidst all the tombstones, there was one that held a special resonance for me\u2014the tombstone of Khoo Seok Wan<\/a>. He was a poet and a scholar, and his life story is particularly fascinating because it contains all the vicissitudes of life.<\/p>\n

I became interested in visiting Khoo\u2019s tombstone after I attended an excellent exhibition<\/a> on him at the National Library. He was born rich but became poor, and died of leprosy. But what really struck me was the beauty and immediacy of his poems, written in classical Chinese style. He is refreshingly honest about his poverty, and his poems chronicle details of his daily life very poignantly.<\/p>\n

I suppose I was also was able to identify because I write poetry.\u00a0 I enjoy writing poetry because I get to express myself, and it is a way to channel my emotions. So I decided to visit Khoo\u2019s grave as a\u00a0 pilgrimage to seek inspiration, and to pay homage to a great poet.<\/p>\n

For me, the poem of his that I loved most was \u201cReflections on Building my Grave\u201d. It is by an immigrant who has reconciled himself to the fact that there is no return to the motherland, and his characteristic honesty (with himself) can be seen. He also reconciles himself to inevitable change, and the line \u201c\u5e74\u5e74\u65b0\u7da0\u5230\u5929\u5357\u201c, as much as it describes how grass will grow yearly around his grave, is a statement that accepts change. This is particularly fitting given the change that is happening now, with a road being constructed through Bukit Brown.<\/p>\n

In fact, I recited this poem by his tombstone because it felt right to do so, like completing life\u2019s cycle. In his acceptance of dying in a foreign land that has become home, there is perhaps a larger acceptance of change. Given that the highway will be constructed through his tomb, it is perhaps a way of sending him to his final rest. And this is fitting because of the way he stoically endured through the vicissitudes of life with courage and dignity.<\/p>\n

This is my tribute to Khoo Seok Wan:<\/p>\n

Visiting Khoo Seok Wan’s Grave\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As I enter, a tripod covered with verdigris promises
\nThat if I pause long enough, its invisible
\nCamera will capture me against a hill of tombs.
\nThis afterimage will bewilder passing cars.<\/p>\n

At Khoo\u2019s burial mound I recite
\n\u201cReflections on building my grave\u201d.
\nTranslated, its crow-squawked syllables
\nHover in the somnolent air. A creased map
\nGuided me here, amid the river of red
\nInscriptions I cannot read.<\/p>\n

The highway blueprint that sent in
\nAn army of excavators must have been
\nA summons from the dead. Otherwise I
\nWould not have come to you
\nWith a broom and a book of your poems.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 “Reflections on Building my Grave” by Khoo Seok Wan\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

(translated by Shelly Bryant from the NLB exhibition<\/a>)<\/p>\n

in sea and on hills<\/p>\n

little space even for my abode<\/p>\n

how then may these buried bones<\/p>\n

leap over the Sword Pond<\/p>\n

even were you to call a third time<\/p>\n

I will have no hope of rising<\/p>\n

from Singapura\u2019s soil [Xing zhou]<\/p>\n

when I fall, at last, into repose<\/p>\n

a petal brushes my headstone \u2013<\/p>\n

another butterfly repeats life\u2019s circle<\/p>\n

yet even in these grave markers<\/p>\n

styles alter with time<\/p>\n

like grass growing anew<\/p>\n

in its season<\/p>\n

with each passing year<\/p>\n

changes again touch<\/p>\n

our southern home<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The inscription at the tomb of Khoo Seok Wan (Photo: Claire Leow)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"KSW's<\/a>

Khoo Seok Wan’s Tomb (photo Khoo Ee Hoon)<\/p><\/div>\n

Editor’s note: Khoo Seok Wan was exhumed on 12 March 2014, with his grandson and his great grandsons in attendance. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Cherlyn Lee Suet Yean I am a Junior College\u00a0 student who loves history and writing poetry. To me, history is a grand story\u00a0 with so many interesting details waiting to be discovered. In my free time, I love taking long walks\u00a0 around Singapore, letting my feet absorb the atmosphere of different places. I learn so much about\u00a0 Singapore\u2019s history that way. Naturally, I am interested in Bukit Brown because it is full of history. In fact, I went there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":8941,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[92,504,83,81,93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture-society","category-date","category-featured","category-slider","category-your-say"],"yoast_head":"\nVisiting Khoo Seok Wan's Grave - Bukit Brown: A World Monuments Watch Site in 2014<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bukitbrown.com\/main\/2014\/visiting-khoo-seok-wans-grave\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Visiting Khoo Seok Wan's Grave - Bukit Brown: A World Monuments Watch Site in 2014\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"by Cherlyn Lee Suet Yean I am a Junior College\u00a0 student who loves history and writing poetry. To me, history is a grand story\u00a0 with so many interesting details waiting to be discovered. In my free time, I love taking long walks\u00a0 around Singapore, letting my feet absorb the atmosphere of different places. I learn so much about\u00a0 Singapore\u2019s history that way. Naturally, I am interested in Bukit Brown because it is full of history. 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