A pot without an opening. (An egg.)
The silly man who drags his intestines. (A needle and thread.)
In the riddle,
two unlike, and sometimes unlikely, things are compared. The obvious
thing that happens during this comparison is that a problem is set, then
solved. But there is something more important here, involving the
riddle as a figurative form: the riddle is composed of two sets, and,
during the process of riddling, the aspects of each of the sets are
transferred to the other. On the surface it appears that the riddle is
largely an intellectual rather than a poetic activity. But through its
imagery and the tension between the two sets, the imagination of the
audience is also engaged. As they seek the solution to the riddle, the
audience itself becomes a part of the images and therefore—and most
significantly—of the metaphorical transformation.
This may not seem a very complex activity on the level of the
riddle, but in this deceptively simple activity can be found the
essential core of all storytelling, including the interaction of imagery
in lyric poetry,
the tale, and the epic. In the same way as those oral forms, the riddle
works in a literal and in a figurative mode. During the process of
riddling, the literal mode interacts with the figurative in a vigorous
and creative way. It is that play between the literal and the
figurative, between reality and fantasy, that characterizes the riddle:
in that relationship can be found metaphor,
which explains why it is that the riddle underlies other oral forms.
The images in metaphor by their nature evoke emotion; the dynamics of
metaphor trap those emotions in the images, and meaning is caught up in
that activity. So meaning, even in such seemingly simple operations as
riddling, is more complex than it may appear.
People were those who
Broke for me the string.
Therefore,
The place became like this to me,
On account of it,
Because the string was that which broke for me.
Therefore,
The place does not feel to me,
As the place used to feel to me,
On account of it.
For,
The place feels as if it stood open before me,
Because the string has broken for me.
Therefore,
The place does not feel pleasant to me,
On account of it.
—(a San poem, from W.H.I. Bleek and L.C. Lloyd, Specimens of Bushman Folklore [1911])
The images in African lyric
interact in dynamic fashion, establishing metaphorical relationships
within the poem, and so it is that riddling is the motor of the lyric.
And, as in riddles, so also in lyric: metaphor
frequently involves and invokes paradox. In the lyric, it is as if the
singer were stitching a set of riddles into a single richly textured
poem, the series of riddling connections responsible for the ultimate
experience of the poem. The singer organizes and controls the emotions
of the audience as he systematically works his way through the levels of
the poem, carefully establishing the connective threads that bring the
separate metaphorical sets into the poem’s totality. None of the
separate riddling relationships exists divorced from those others that
compose the poem. As these riddling relationships interact and
interweave, the poet brings the audience to a close, intense sense of
the meaning of the poem. Each riddling relationship provides an
emotional clue to the overall design of the poem. Further clues to
meaning are discovered by the audience in the rhythmical aspects of the
poem, the way the poet organizes the images, the riddling organization
itself, and the sound of the singer’s voice as well as the movement of
the singer’s body. As in the riddle, everything in the lyric is directed
to the revelation of metaphor.
Work the clay while it is fresh.
Wisdom killed the wise man.
The African proverb
seems initially to be a hackneyed expression, a trite leftover repeated
until it loses all force. But proverb is also performance, it is also
metaphor, and it is in its performance and metaphorical aspects that it
achieves its power. In one sense, the experience of a proverb is similar
to that of a riddle and a lyric poem: different images are brought into
a relationship that is novel,
that provides insight. When one experiences proverbs in appropriate
contexts, rather than in isolation, they come to life. In the riddle the
poser provides the two sides of the metaphor. In lyric poetry
the two sides are present in the poem but in a complex way; the members
of the audience derive their aesthetic experience from comprehending
that complexity. The words of the proverb are by themselves only one
part of the metaphorical experience. The other side of the riddle is not
to be found in the same way it is in the riddle and the lyric. The
proverb establishes ties with its metaphorical equivalent in the real
life of the members of the audience or with the wisdom of the past. The
words of the proverb are a riddle waiting to happen. And when it
happens, the African proverb ceases to be a grouping of tired words.
No comments:
Post a Comment