A Vietnamese Poem by Mai Van Phan Explicated

A  Poem Composed by Mai Van Phan

Translated into English  by Pompen Hantrakool

Explicated by Dr Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya

Text

In the Midst of Winter

A mask is hung on the wall

Cold wind blows

An eye bores

Explication

Here is an eerie narrative. A room. A mask is hung on the wall. Cold wind blows. In other words, the atmosphere is uninviting.It  freezes ones sensibilities.May be that someone enters into the room stealthily. The eyes of the mask pierces into the heart of the intruder and   finds out that it is the poet Mai Van Phan. Hah ha. Poets donot steal objects. They steal the images of the objects.So the objects remain as they are. But they multiply being recreated in poetry.But that is another story. The object of hanging masks on the wall could be varied. In China for example they have dragon masks or lion masks. They embody lion or dragon energy to ward off evils and welcome fresh creative energies. There could be masks representing gods and fairies. But at the same time masks could be used to invoke or animate evil spirits. The minions of Satan and dark forces could be conjured by propitiating a mask. Yes masks could be interpreted as externalization of our inner self. A mask  often stands for a face with special feature. It often depicts a particular emotion. The mask in this poem is hung up on a wall and a cold wind blows. The cold wind chills the genial current of creativity. Hence no wonder the mask here stands for a dark and ominous power and the room itself might be a cave of a room where black magic is performed. But is that all? Is there any face that does not wear a mask? Masks are sine qua non with any and every face. We hide our joys and we hide our tears. Our faces are never what they are. We wear masks always. Those who exhort us to think positive ask us to put on a smile always. And we pose and pose and often take our poses to be the reality. To put on a smile on the face likens to putting on a mask embodying the lion so that we could be as brave as a lion. But a poet could be different .He could try to know himself.He could try to get rid of his mask and the poses. To that end he must look inward and observe the masks that  obfuscate his true identity. And the poet doffs his mask and hangs it up there on the wall. And once the poet doffs his mask he has no locality or a name. He cannot have any identity. That is why the the  room is empty. The mask alone is there hung up on a wall.But the poets presence in the room could be inferred from the gaze of the mask.When we gaze at something our object of gaze in turn starts gazing at us.We pointed out that the poet gazed at his masks. In turn the mask gazes at the poet. The eye of the mask bores. Does it espy the bodiless. This is a situation when the poets being seeks to find  its own self rid of its accidental attributes.The accidental attributes in turn being eye of the mask  doffed and hung on the wall  has daggers in it that bores. Cold wind accompanies the wrath of the eye and seeks to turn the blood of the poet cold. One wonders whether Lord Buddha had to encounter a similar situation  while seated under the Bodhi Tree in search of enlightenment. Lord Buddha overcame Mara and his minions and so shall the poet we hope.