Over the past week, I’ve had the opportunity to be a part of events with Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma, and it has been an absolute delight. Thomas translates from Tamil and Spanish into English, and he is a poet and performer who brings such light and energy into his presentations. Two words have surfaced several times in his presentations and our conversations over the past week: integrity and inspiration. Those two words are also a nice encapsulation in what I have experienced in my interactions with Thomas. He is so inspiring, and he speaks with such integrity.
The way Thomas embodies the notion of inspiration has brought to mind for me the Southern School of Chinese literati painting, which stood in opposition to the Northern School. The distinction between the two is not geographical at all, but rather in the approach to their work. The Northern School consisted mainly of scholar-bureaucrats who depicted their subject matter in clear, almost direct terms. The Southern School was aimed for more intimacy and personal expression in the artist’s work, and they believed that it was brief moments of inspiration that produced great art, a principle derived from Chan Buddhism (from which the Northern/Southern distinction is derived). This emphasis on moments of inspiration should not be understood as a divorce from the influence of the works of the masters who have gone before, but instead as a growth out of having contemplated them more fully than what is required for mere imitation of their styles.
This principle is one that Thomas has touched on in his presentations and conversations multiple times over the past week, and it is one that he clearly embodies in his own practice. He engages in deep conversation with the poets who have gone before, and he studies their work with loving attention. In producing his own work – including translations of these masters’ poetry, new poems of his own, music, magic tricks, and even the more intimate conversations we’ve shared over meals and in dialogue groups – Thomas is always in dialogue with the works that he has engaged with, and he always conducts himself respectfully in that dialogue. It is a true delight to see and to learn from.
Thomas will be delivering the keynote address entitled “Conversations Across Worlds: Translation And The Lyric Imagination” at the Singapore Translation Symposium ‘23 tomorrow (30 September) on International Translation Day. Tickets for the symposium are available for the very modest price of $35 ($25 for a one day pass), and concession prices are available for students and seniors.
If you are in Singapore, do take the opportunity to hear Thomas speak. And of course, the rest of the lineup for the symposium looks great too!