A Vietnamese Poetry in English Translation Explicated - Oh Stone

Oh Stone         

By Nguyen Duy.
Translated by Kenin Bowen and Nguyen Ba Chung
Explicated by Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyay

I stand in meditation before Ankors ruins

If stone can be so shattered what of human life?

Oh stone

let me inscribe a plea for peace


In the end in every war

Whoever won the people always lost

Ankor Bhat is one of the greatest temple towns on the earth and a world heritage site.  The main temple here is the Vishnu temple. The temple is famed to be the symbol of the Mount Meru which is the stay of the universe and impregnable. Besides Lord Vishnu is looked upon as the preserver of the multiverse. The poet stands before it and is lost in meditation. Ankor Bhat is in ruins. It is the ruins that impel the poet to meditate. The stone is deemed to be the most firm thing under the sun. The ruins of Ankor Bhat show that even stone can be shattered. If a piece of stone and a stone built temple could crumble down there is no surprise that we  witness human life is destroyed or put out of joints. The poet compares human life with a stone built temple. Compared with the life time of a temple the life time of a man is literally ephemeral. And yet do we not think that a human body however ephemeral is also as sacred as a temple? And it is a pity that all sacred things are tumbling down in front of our eyes. May be the Buddhist notion of impermanence is winking at the readers through the second line of the poem : 

 If stone can be shattered what of human life? 

Despite the fact that nothing is permanent in the existence the poet seeks to inscribe a plea for peace. Here we espy the portrait of Buddha silhouetted with ironical words. Though Lord Buddha knew that nothing is permanent in the world yet he sought to inscribe a plea for peace and love on the rocks of existence. The poet seeks to inscribe his plea on the stone so that it might linger for quite a long time But on another level does not the stone stand for a stony heart cruel and sans any love for fellow men? Just as Lord Buddha sought to inscribe his message in  every stony heart so does the poet seek to inscribe the language of love and peace on the cruel hearts of his time and of times to come.The poet addresses the stone and thereby dares address the cruel hearts and asks for their leave to inscribe the message of love in them. Because the poet full well knows that the cruel practices will  go on through all futurity. The poem ends with the two sad lines:

In the end in every war 

whoever won, the people always lost.

That is a lesson of history. Kings and princes and Presidents of the countries are ever engaged in vying with one another. Battles are lost and battles are won . But the lot of the common man ever remains the same sans hope.  Thus the poem is apparently weighed down with pessimism and sadness. the poet however feels that the  message of peace and love needs to be chanted over and  over again.