Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje

Author:Michael Ondaatje [Ondaatje, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: General, Personal Memoirs, Biography & Autobiography, Biography, Travel, Literary, Canadian, Literary Criticism, 20th Century, Essays & Travelogues, Sri Lanka, Authors; Canadian - 20th Century, Ondaatje; Michael - Childhood and Youth, Authors; Canadian
ISBN: 9780679746690
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 1982-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

THE PRODIGAL

HARBOUR

I arrived in a plane but love the harbour. Dusk. And the turning on of electricity in ships, portholes of moon, the blue glide of a tug, the harbour road and its ship chandlers, soap makers, ice on bicycles, the hidden anonymous barber shops behind the pink dirt walls of Reclamation Street.

One frail memory dragged up out of the past—going to the harbour to say goodbye to a sister or mother, dusk. For years I loved the song, “Harbour lights,” and later in my teens danced disgracefully with girls, humming “Sea of Heartbreak.”

There is nothing wise about a harbour, but it is real life. It is as sincere as a Singapore cassette. Infinite waters cohabit with flotsam on this side of the breakwater and the luxury liners and Maldive fishing vessels steam out to erase calm sea. Who was I saying goodbye to? Automatically as I travel on the tug with my brother-in-law, a pilot in the harbour, I sing “the lights in the harbour don’t shine for me …” but I love it here, skimming out into the night anonymous among the lazy commerce, my nieces dancing on the breakwater as they wait, the lovely swallowing of thick night air as it carves around my brain, blunt, cleaning itself with nothing but this anonymity, with the magic words. Harbour. Lost ship. Chandler. Estuary.

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