Two friends on a literary labour of love
Gracious butterfly,
Were you born a human
You would be arrogant and
vain
Flaunting your beauty in my
face ….
Chitra Premaratne Stuiver: Finding solace in words after the death of her husband
It is sheer spontaneity which gives life to Chitra Premaratne Stuiver’s poetry. Armed with nearly 30 years of experience as the one-time Visual Arts Librarian of the Hawaiian State Library and the Contemporary (Art) Museum in Honolulu, Chitra plunged into literary pursuits more seriously after her retirement in 2003, having returned ‘for good’ to her land of birth together with her soul mate Willem Stuiver.
Her maiden poetic effort recognized in the ‘100 words poetry column of the Sunday Times’ a few years ago prompted Chitra to put her pen and words to further test. “It was so exciting to see my words in printed form,” she says as her verses continued to appear in ‘100 words’ and later in journals including Channels. Today she is part of the English Writers’ Cooperative of Sri Lanka (EWC) as well.
Chitra crossed the celebrated illustrator and author Sybil Wettasinghe’s path quite by accident. It was a meeting of minds as Chitra recalls. “Although I had heard so much about Sybil, I had never met her in person until one fine day an event organised by the EWC brought us together.” The friendship cemented by mutual respect, common grounds of creativity and above all the sense of humour solidified with each passing year. “Sybil is truly amazing and our zest for creativity bound us together,” reflects Chitra who is ‘overwhelmed’ by Sybil’s magnanimity in illustrating a book of selected verses of hers, with her one-lined illustrations.
Titled, ‘In Praise of Brevity’ the slim volume is an exercise of devotion and a celebration of Chitra’s ‘evergreen creativity’ as the revered illustrator herself notes in her dedication. As Sybil points out, it’s a labour of love to encourage her dear friend to lift her spirits after an unfortunate fall she suffered which left her incapacitated for a while. “I wanted to rejuvenate her and I enjoyed doing this more than Chitra herself. I did a similar book for Alfreda de Silva during her stormy times,” smiles Sybil. She goes on to note that that she is particularly fond of Chitra’s never failing sense of humour with which she spices her poetry.
The book which is more an exercise of personal fulfilment than a commercial venture, incorporates 25 ‘light poems’ of Chitra, each with an accompanying art work of Sybil.
It was loss which made Chitra turn to serious writing, although literature has been close to her heart since she was a schoolgirl at Devi BalikaVidyalaya. “I was selected to edit the school’s first magazine,” recalls Chitra admitting candidly that other than English Literature and European History, everything else bored her! After her Dutch husband Willem Stuiver, an engineer by profession, passed away in 2009, it was a “huge vacuum” in her life and Chitra found more solace in her writing, especially after her poem, Ruminations of a Recent Widow won an honourable mention in the annual ChannelsPoetry and Short Story Contest in 2010. Chitra is particularly fond of the work of Maya Angelou, Anne Ranasinghe and Sakuntala Sachithanandan.
Sybil Wettasinghe: Leafing through the book, ‘In Praise of Brevity’. Pix by Indika Handuwala
Watching her paternal grandfather turning out exquisite hand- made jewellery in her ancestral setting of Bope is deeply etched in Chitra’s mind. She is nostalgic reminiscing her ‘nomadic life’, changing schools every time her father who was in government postal service, was posted to a new location. It was destiny which made her husband-to be, Willem stop in then Ceylon in the mid 50s while travelling, to catch up with his Ceylonese friends. They met through mutual friends and the romance blossomed! “I was just 22 and was bowled over by his looks,” chuckles Chitra
After her marriage to Willem, Chitra enrolled herself at the University of Hawaii to read for a degree in Library Sciences. She went on to earn two Masters- one in Library Science and the second in History of Art from the University of Hawaii.After a long stint as the Visual Arts Librarian at the Hawaiian State Library, Chitra moved to the Contemporary (Art) Museum in Honolulu where she was entrusted with setting up of a library there.
‘Still photography’ is another passion and her colour photographs have been exhibited in Honolulu and also in Colombo. A few years ago, she published a collection of her photographs, ‘Art in Nature: Colour Pattern Texture’. She credits her husband for encouraging her in her pursuits with the ‘lens’. Globe trotters during their sabbaticals, Chitra’s and Willem’s adventurous life further enabled her to ‘freeze’ moments.
A woman who has no doubt lived a colourful life, graceful and soft spoken Chitra sets an example of chartering unknown territories to emerge a more enlightened soul. Her verse, Happy in my dotage holds testimony to the serene soul that she is:
I write at my own sweet pace
With no pressing deadlines to meet,
Paper and typewriter are all I need….