Man the Seeker: Robert Fitzgerald and Jemesa Asesela

Abstract

A General Introduction To One of FitzGerald's Fijian Sources.

It would not be possible in this brief introduction to examine in any depth the influence of Fiji on the poetry of R.D. FitzGerald. Rather than encourage a superficial, sweeping impression of this influence I will confine my remarks for the most part to introducing a Fijian text that is important to an appreciation of FitzGerald's recently published 'Invocation of Josefa Asasela'. Although there are a number of established Fijian sources for many of FitzGerald's poems that I could have turned to, I have decided on the Fijian text of the story of Jemesa Asesela because of its inaccessibility to the general reader, and also because of the intrinsic worth of FitzGerald's version of it in his invocation. An analysis of the 'mechanics' of the influence of this and other Fijian sources is not attempted, as the aim of this article is only to introduce the story of Jemesa Asesela as one of FitzGerald's least-known sources.