Vietnamese Poetry Apoem by Mai Van Phan explicated by Dr Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya

A poem by the Vietnamese poet Mai Van Phan

Spring soaked in a soil

Digging the soil down

Found the whole old year round

The poem opens with  the name of a season. It is Spring.It begins with the Tet Festival. Spring thereby signifies the advent of the New Year. It is during the spring that plants grow and flowers burst forth. The poet speaks of spring soaked in a soil. Soil is the top layer of the surface land.Even during the Tet festival the poet does not speak of the soil or the whole earth  soaked in spring.He speaks of a soil soaked in Spring.That shows that it is not  a Nature poem. It speaks of human nature. The soil is here a metaphor for the conscious mind –the top layer of  a particular human mind.The word soaked is significant.When  it is said that the soil or top layer of the mind is soaked in Spring  Spring does not stand for a season in the world without.Spring stands for a frame of mind . Spring might make itself felt in the mind no matter whether there is a corresponding spring in the world without,Spring however stands for a new birth and creativity . It is a power that cannot be descried but felt. When the mind is soaked in spring the poet feels that there is the digging of soil down . In other words when there is the spring in any mind whatever the mind becomes introvert. Instead of exploring the world without the mind seeks to delve into the self..It creates a suspense in the mind of the reader. One is apt to ask what does the poet find delving deep into his own being.The poet says that the whole old year round is found as a result of the excavation within. The legitimation of the poem is clear.Any moment of ecstasy or joy  is not an accident and it does not mean forgetfulness of the joys and sorrows of the past. Rather the spring  state of mind is the consummation of the joys and sorrows  experienced earlier. When Lord Buddha attained enlightenment the whole gamut of his past lives came back to him in a flash.Unless we realize that all the earlier seasons work towards the bringing about spring we do not understand the true nature of spring/ Therefore we must not be swayed by the ecstasy of spring.We must remember that if Autumn were not there there  would not be any spring, Hence man should brave the different seasons of life. however hard they might be, to attain spring or enlightenment or creative moments There is an aesthetics embedded here