Vietnamese Poetry Child of the Earth-- A poem composed by the Cham Poet Inrasara and
translated into English by A. G. Sachner explicated by Dr Ramesh Mukhopadhyaya
The text of the poem
in English translation
I am
A child of the wind wandering through the fields of narrow
Central Region
a child of the fiery Sun
four seasons of dry cold white sands
a child of the open sea with roaring storms
and of the pale green
sleepless eyes of the Cham temple
Mother feeds me with the milk of sad folk songs
father feeds me
with the sinewy arms of Glang
Anak
grandpa feeds me with
the foggy moon of legends
the palei feeds me
with the shadows of kites the souls of cricket s the sounds of buffalo bells
Growing up I
confronted the war
I clashed with food and clothing existentialism and
phenomenology
I floundered in the
flow of language gone astray
then was submerged in the valley of your love
I dropped the world and lost my self
then I stretched myself from the pit of the past
like a wounded person searching for an exit from the ruins
of a city
I sought myself
finding the sunlight of native country
Then I forced my head up and crawled uyt
then I stretched myself from the pit of the past
like a wounded person searching for an exit from the ruins
of a city
I sought my self
Finding the sunlight of native country
Inside me green again---even though the forest has burned
inside me green again—even though the river has died
the sand suddenly parched---the lullaby suddenly sad
you are suddenly
graceful—the temple suddenly deserted
Mothers distant voice soothes into an everlasting slumber
Analysis
This is an autobiographical poem.
The speaker here speaks in the first person. The speaker introduces himself as
a child of the wind wandering through the fields of the narrow central region,
a child of the fiery sun, four seasons of dry cold white sands, a child of the
open sea filled with roaring storms and of the pale green sleepless eyes of the
Cham temple. That is the first stanza of the poem almost ad verbatim. The wind
wandering through the fields of the narrow region gives us a sense of touch.
The fiery sun and the four seasons of dry cold white sands also give us the
sense of touch. Our feet feel the cold sands. Our eyes see the white sands. Our
skin feels the hot sun. Our eyes see the hot sun. We can hear the roaring
storms and descry the seas tossed by it. Thus the first four lines of the poem
engross our eyes ears and our sense of touch. They speak of a landscape where
the wings are as it were howling at all hours . Restlessness rules all over. The
restless landscape is juxtaposed with the sleepless eyes of the Cham temple. That
is, the Cham temple stands there tranquil looking on the restlessness of
nature. While the seas are ever restless the Cham temple is ever in its
tranquility. Does not the Cham temple symbolize a mind ever tranquil and
perennial observing the phenomenal world where restlessness is the rule? The Cham temple looks upon the world with
sleepless eyes. But on another level does not the poet say that he is the child
of wind fire water and the earth the four elements that constitute the world?
His mind is however one with the primordial mind that looks upon the restless
world. On another level the Cham people were
b rave sea voyagers who dared the wild seas in ancient times. It were
they who founded the grand kingdom of Champa . Does not the speaker hark back
to his ancient past? he remembers that he is the child of maritime adventurers
in his unconscious mind.
The second stanza of the poem
wistfully looks back to the indeterminate past. How is a child socialized? The
speaker says that as a child he was fed with the milk of the sad folk songs. When
a child he heard from his father the heroic poem Glang Anak his grandfather fed
him with the foggy moon of legends. In fact a child is not brought up with
nutritious food alone. And it is the stories that a child voraciously eats and
the speaker tells us how he was nurtured by the stories. Every rift of the poem
is loaded with rich ore. Such phrases as – the sinewy arms of Glang Anak, the
foggy moon of legends are time and again .They present before us the picture of
a child surrounded by grandpa and mother. Lights from the father’s eyes fall on
him. But this is a picture of a family, of a people who are wont to cast a
longing lingering look back to their glorious past. Right now they are sans the
glory which they were wont to enjoy earlier. It speaks of a people with lost
glory and lasting pain. It was in a village that the speaker spent his
childhood. What was the village like? Well the speaker says that the village
fed him with the shadow of kites, souls of crickets and the sounds of buffalo
bells. Such portrayals of a village far from the madding crowds in noble strife
is archetypal .To any Indian reader this portrayal of a Cham village reminds of
the countless villages of India itself. India by the by is still a network of
villages even in the twenty first century. But this is not all. The shadow of
kites the souls of cricket the sounds of buffalo bells seem to correspond to
the sad folk song. arms of Glang Anak and the foggy moon of legends. In the
moonlight we could descry everything but in the foggy moon whatever we see is
hazy bright. Things no longer remain discrete there. The village in the shadow
of the kites is as distant and as wistful as the sad folk songs that tell us of
homely joys and sorrows or else that alludes to some battle lost and won.
The idyllic imagery of childhood
is all of a sudden shattered with his growing up. In his adolescence the
speaker confronted the world and the war.. Those who know Vietnam of today know
full well how the country was confronted with war. It was like the sea ravaged
by the storm. And every inhabitant of the country had to face the ravages of
war .With the speaker the war was without and the war was within. On the
physical level, the speaker strived for food and clothing. On the mental level,
he had to encounter clashing philosophies such as existentialism of Sartre and
Kierkegaard and phenomenology of Husserl. But they be- speak of language game.
The speaker was carried off by the flows of language and lost his stay .Does
not the speaker thereby suggest the helplessness of the Cham people who have
lost their ancient glory and state. But finally the speaker was plunged into
the valley of love. Let the philosophers continue their dispute which has no
ending love is the only philosophy and a feeling that wields the opposites.
But nay. Plunged in love the
speaker dropped the world and lost his self. Here is as it were a sudden
reversal of events.We expected that the speaker would find a stay in love. But
the opposite took place. The speaker lost the rhythm of the country dance and
the folk songs. His heart was blinded. He was like a person shunned falling
into middle of a defoliated forest. This
is a wonderful pen picture. We can visualize a young man forlorn plunged in- to
the middle of a forest that had shed its leaves. This is the climax of a
narrative.
In the fifth stanza the speaker
says that flung into the defoliated forest he forced his head up and crawled
out. This puts in our mind the portrait of a soldier crawling out of forest.
This was on the physical plane. On the mental plane, the poet stretched himself from the pit of the past. The speaker /
the poet likened the wounded person , searching for an exit from the ruins of a
city. This imagery applies to the Cham people also who were in search of an
identity. The imagery speaks of Vietnam shaking off the hang over of war. The
speaker rediscovered himself, or retrieved his lost self finding the sunlight
of the native country. Patriotism and love for one’s people and one’s
motherland constitute one’s self.
Thus here is a story of paradise
lost and paradise regained. Now that the speaker has found his own self once
again, he is green. A fresh zest for life charges him . The speaker is green
again even though the forest is burnt. Inside him there is a flow even though
the river has died. This imagery might speak of the war ravaged Vietnam where
forests and rivers became preys to napalm bombs. Or else, this is the portrait
of the world today where urbanization robs the earth of its forests and where
dammed rivers have lost their flow. But the speaker has verdure aglow within .
Rivers of love flow in his heart unimpeded. May the tribe of such speakers
multiply. The externalization of their inner world might bring back the lost
Eden upon earth. The speaker becomes nostalgic. The lullaby becomes suddenly
sad . The temple suddenly deserted.
The people of Vietnam
particularly the Cham people are fond of ancestor worship. The poem ends with-
Mothers distant voice soothes into an everlasting slumber. The poem seems to
counterpoise Coleridge’s Kubla Khan. In Coleridge, Kubla Khan heard the voice
of ancestors prophesying war. Here the distant voice of the mother
soothes the speaker into an everlasting slumber. All passions spent there is a
calm of the mind.
The poem is archetypal in so far
as it describes the course of the life
of every man in four stages – childhood adolescence youth and old age
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