The Fisherman Mourned by His Wife – Patrick Fernando

When you were not quite thirty and the sun

had not yet tanned you into old-boat brown,
when you were not quite thirty and had not begun
to be embittered like the rest, nor grown
obsessed with death, then would you come
hot with continence upon the sea
chaste as a gull flying pointed home,
in haste to be with me!

Now that. being dead, you are beyond detection,

and need not be discreet I confess
it was not love that married us nor affection
but elders' persuasion, not even loneliness.
Recall how first you were so impatient and afraid
my eyes were open in the dark unlike in love,
trembling, lest in fear, you'd let me go a maid,
trembling on the other hand for my virginity.

Three months the monsoon thrashed the sea, and you

remained at home; the sky cracked like a shell
in thunder, and the rain broke through.
At last when pouring ceased and storm winds fell,
when gulls returned new-plumed and wild
when in our wind-torn flamboyante
new buds broke, I was with child.

My face was wan while telling you and voice fell low,
and you seemed full of guilt and not to know
whether to repent or rejoice over the situation.
You nodded at the ground and went to sea.
But soon I was to you more than God or temptation,
and so were you to me.

Men come and go, some say they understand,

our children weep, the youngest thinks you're fast asleep:
theirs is fear and wonderment.
You had grown so familiar as my hand
that I cannot with simple grief
assuage dismemberment.

Outside the wind despoils of leaf

trees that it used to nurse;
once more the flamboyante is torn
the sky cracks like a shell again,
so someone practical has gone
to make them bring the hearse
before the rain
In his poem ‘The Fisherman Mourned by His Wife’ Patrick Fernando captures the typical plight
of a young woman widowed by her husband’s untimely death. The poet sums up the woman’s
attitude to the dead man in quite a naturalistic manner so that the form of relationship the
husband and wife had together becomes clear. In a state of rational solitude, the woman
reveals her past with her beloved husband. She realises the illusiveness of life from this
untimely death and cooperates with the others in arranging what is needed for the funeral. As
depicted by Patrick Fernando, through her simplicity, discretion, and devotion to her husband,
she remains a graceful tragic heroine. The poet also sums up by implication the fisherman’s
sensibility, innocence, naïveté, sobriety, joy, and courage, in terms of presenting the
fundamentals of their relationship.
First, the poet enumerates what the woman appreciates in the man’s character. The woman’s
pride over her husband’s youthfulness is clear in the repetition of the phrase, “When you were
not quite thirty…” His inexperience, naiveness, and innocence which the woman rejoices in are
suggested in the detail about his exposure to the sun, “the sun had not yet tanned you into old-
boat brown”. According to her, he distinguishes himself from the “rest” of the community
around him in terms of remaining cheerful and hopeful. According to her, others are
“embittered” and have “grown obsessed with death” and not as pleasant as he is.
A clue to the typical Sri Lankan cultural values is provided in the lines where the woman admits
and admires his chastity:
“… then would you come
hot with continence upon the sea
chaste as gull pointed home,
in haste to be with me.”
She is somewhat explicit about his desperation for sex each time he comes home from the sea in
her claim that the man is “hot with continence”. The comparison of the “gull”, which is a phallic
symbol shape-wise, is packed with passion that reinforces the woman’s eager anticipation of
the man. “Chaste” and “haste” rhyme well internally, reinforcing this meaning.
Patrick Fernando continues to depict the woman’s emotions in the next three stanzas. Shedding
light on her traditional respect and submissiveness to her husband, he includes her request for
her husband’s permission to unveil herself. But he is careful not to sentimentalise her feelings.
He aptly includes her confession that she married him as a stranger just to satisfy her parents.
Then he relates her sweet memories of their marriage that dominate in their relationship. The
writer’s capacity as a narrator is clear in this revelation with its care for facts and its discrete but
detached clarification of the situation of married life.
While the man is dead, the woman gathers courage and discloses the findings she secretly
made about the man during their first night. She vividly explains her frustration about his failure
to consume her virginity and her sexual dissatisfaction due to the man’s fear and impatience
caused by his inexperience with sex:
“Recall how first you were impatient and afraid
my eyes were open in the dark unlike in love,
trembling, lest in fear, you’d let me go a maid,
trembling on the other hand for my virginity.”
However simple the diction is, this effectively reveals the man’s chastity as well as the woman’s
excitement. The woman seems to treasure this experience as it has illustrated to her the man’s
chastity. The poet demonstrates in these lines his understanding of what a Sri Lankan village
woman appreciates in a man.
Next emerges a highly expressive symbolic portrait of the physical and mental interaction
between the man and the woman until her conception of “a child.” The symbols used here are
easily and appropriately associated with the natural phenomena in a maritime landscape:
“Three months the monsoons thrashed the sea, and you
remained at home; the sky cracked like a shell
in thunder, and the rain broke through.
At last when the pouring ceased and storm winds fell,
when gulls returned new-plumed and wild
when in our wind-torn flamboyant
new buds broke, I was with child.”
The imagery is loaded with passionate implications. The man’s virility is suggested in “the
monsoons” that “thrashed the sea” and in “thunder” in which “the sky cracked like a shell” and
the woman’s orgasm, in “the rain” that “broke through”. What happens in the environment
over a period of three months is implied to take place between the two of them. The
expressions dramatically intertwine the sexual intercourse between the man and the woman
leading to pregnancy with a steady cycle of natural phenomena in the environment related to
reproduction. The “flamboyant” with its scarlet hue and charm, the “gulls” with their vitality
and passion, and the “new buds” with their fertility and protrusion, reinforce the sensuality of
the imagery.
The philosophy of their relationship develops at the climax that occurs in the fourth stanza. The
sombre, enigmatic nature of their feelings and their reactions to the wife’s conception of a child
display the adult values they are in the process of cultivating. The woman’s inhibitions and the
man’s perplexity blend for an enhanced personal relationship. This couches a fulsome dramatic
climax in their coexistence. “But soon I was to you more than God or temptation, and so were
you to me.” The man and the woman maintain their identity within it. The poet depicts how the
supremacy of love and union is confirmed in their relationship through a first-hand concrete
experience. The man’s sense of responsibility is testified in his act of going “to the sea” as it
suggests his determination to earn what is required for his family.
In the final stanza, the woman turns back to the present from her retrospection. The poet
vividly describes the general attitude of the mourners; “Theirs is fear and wonderment.” This is
a clear abstraction of the common man’s attitude to death. “Men come and go…” This is a
statement that elucidates the whole process of samsara while describing the procedure in
funerals. The irony of all the illusions of life is forcefully exemplified in the repetition of the
natural phenomena depicted in stanza four in a contradictory fashion:
“Outside the wind despoils of leaf
trees that it used to nurse;
once more the flamboyant is torn
the sky cracks like a shell again”.
In this passage, the wind-torn flamboyant may symbolise a broken heart. The thunder and
lightning may be mocking this young woman who is forsaken in her pregnancy. As nature itself
has taken her man away, the paradox of nature is laid bare in the final stanza.
She sees the reality behind every illusion of life and acts like a tragic but realistic heroine.
Though helpless, she joins the rest of the world in a practical and reasonable way.
The dragging and snapping, flowing, and tossing beat of the lines varying in length suggest the
movements of the sea waves while presenting the woman’s emotions. The rhythm too suits a
lamentation, reinforcing the gloomy effect of the imagery. These characteristics make the poem
an elegy.