The Merlion
MERLIGN
Even though there are more websites on you than verses Even though you evoke cameras more than pride postcards more than praise Even though your titan child is now terrorising history and small children on Sentosa Still you seem to have a face poets love to woo. There was the old gentleman, windswept, seablown, wandering home with a suitcase of dreams, who treated you like a queen, hoping to press you for secrets. And then the lady with the thick glasses, who thought she saw Ezekiel's cherubim, the sign episteme of higher forces forever barring the way to paradise. And that young man, himself half lion, with barbed tale raised, his words coiled like a fist. Eyes louder than silence. Still others, perplexed as much by your blank stare as their maddening need to know, burden you with the fret of lost causes and years of waiting Become now the need to apostrophise what is rock to make it bear weight. How we wallow in metaphors! As a child I walked through a garden to gawk at the back of a giant too tall for a child's mind to wrap around. Risking the simplest of pleasures: a closer glance, a furtive stroke, Pitting heights with the dwarf twin, long since gone. Reaching for scale and contact, And now, as a man, forever measuring shadows. No need to go on with this pretense, these riddles and voices. This is a heap of fashioned stone, too light to carry souls. Rough beast, you are neither idol nor ideal. Your heart is hollow, cold, and open for admission, but we have nowhere else to hide our dreams. Take what names we have to give, and hold our secrets well Keep what matters and what counts The rest you can spit as spray.
-Alvin Pang, from City of Rain, 2003
Picture taken from: https://kusuisland.wordpress.com/2012/01/08/merlion-tower-sentosa-singapore/
The Merlion has always been celebrated as an intrinsic part of Singapore's heritage. However, the poet calls out on the fact that the Merlion is, in fact, a construct created by the Singapore Tourism Board in 1964, built as what he calls 'a heap of fashioned stone, too light to carry souls'. The interior of the Merlion is open for admission, and the poet addresses the Merlion as such: 'Rough beast, you are neither idol nor ideal. / Your heart is hollow, cold, and open / for admission'. The poem also says at the start that the Merlion evoked very little 'pride'. Perhaps this is because the Merlion, despite being an icon, was still a relatively recent construct deliberately created for the sake of tourism. However, the poet does male the concession that 'we have nowhere else / to hide our dreams', The Merlion, despite being an artificial part of our heritage as opposed to the more organic cultures like lanhuahe, still remains very much a representation of the Singaporean consciousness.
Why You Should Visit:
Although the poet holds a deliberately un-romantic view of the Merlion, it is still a must-see icon of Singapore. The poet may be of the opinion that the contrived aspects of our heritage are less representative of our culture, but perhaps much of tradition also had their roots in deliberate, contrived plans with their own agendas. Regardless, the Merlion has been a part of Singapore's identity for more than half a century, and this has left an unremovable mark in the local psyche.
What To Do:
Ascend the Merlion Tower in Sentosa for a fantastic panoramic view of the island. Also, visit the Merlion park for the Merlion statue that constantly spews a jet of water, or as the poet describes, the statue that 'spits (water) as spray'. This is also the origin of the local phrase 'to do a Merlion', which means to vomit!
Further Reading:
http://www.sentosa.com.sg/en/attractions/imbiah-lookout/the-merlion/
http://www.yoursingapore.com/see-do-singapore/recreation-leisure/viewpoints/merlion-park.html
