A Poem from Yunnan explicated

Poetry from  Yunnan

A  Lovesick  Letter  composed by Li Kaiyi translated into English

Explicated by Dr Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya

The text

In a silent deserted cottage

Sitting alone at dusk

I miss you in a long distance

Bygones be bygones

Cicadas on locust tree

Chirps me sick at heart

The wind whistles

Saucily runs away

Bends rose tree in a fence

Is it sending letter ?

Or ?

A fluffy dandelion

Through window land on cold forehead

Feel it

Those tender words

Still have your warmth

Explication

The title of the poem A Lovesick Letter reminds any reader of a whole array of belles lettres where love is the main theme. There is the Husband’s Message in Anglo-Saxon poetry where the lover sends his message in runic writings to his lady love. In the famous Sanskrit poem Meghdoot composed by Kalidasa , a lover sends the cloud as his messenger to his sweetheart who is away at Ujjayini. Here the poet sitting alone at dusk in his silent deserted cottage misses his sweetheart who is away.This is a beautiful pen picture . A silent cottage flashes upon our mind’s eye. The poet is seated there alone . It is dusk. This is an instance of a montage which evokes in us a sadness that baffles description. The poet says –I miss you in a long distance The word deserted placed before the noun cottage tells us that the cottage is deserted. But who deserted it? When the poet says- I miss you in a long distance, we understand that the poet’s sweetheart deserted the cottage. Cottage is a French loan in English language. It is more fashionable than a hut. And one wonders whether there could be a cottage at all unless there is a lady ruling it. There is a Sanskrit adage that tells that it is the wife who constitutes the cottage. Grihini griham uchyate. So a cottage sans the wife in it is a deserted one. On another level, the deserted cottage could be a metaphor for the poet himself who could function as a cottage and give shelter to his wife. Be that as it may, the fact is that the poet’s sweetheart has left him and his cottage. Proust’s famous novel dwells on the hours presently after his sweetheart leaves him. The poet however misses his sweetheart who is away. For the time being he fights his emotions of being deserted by his sweetheart. He says to himself – Bygones be bygones. That is, past is past. This makes the poem dramatic. It reveals a conflict raging in the heart of the poet. Thereby the poet becomes a living character with us. But his efforts to forget the past are of no avail. It is dusk. The cicadas on locust tree are now loud. Their shrill sound fills the atmosphere. Locust trees are spiny trees having clusters of fragrant white flowers. We can now imagine the darkling atmosphere loud with the shrill cry of cicadas and charged with the fragrance of paling white flowers  in the encroaching darkness. The atmosphere is a metaphor for the lonely poet. The shrill sound of cicadas might remind him over and over again of his lady love who has left him of late The poet is sick at heart. The wind whistles by. It seems to rudely run away and on its path it bends the rose tree in a fence. The poet wonders whether the wind itself carries the message of the poet’s lovelorn heart. In its hurry it bends the rose tree on its way. The poet asks- Is it sending a letter? The same wind has transported a soft and feathery dandelion – a yellow flower with jagged leaves through the window. It touches the cold forehead of the poet. The poet feels the touch o. The poem closes with the two lines

Those tender words

Still have your warmth

On one level, nature seems to respond to the anguish of the human heart. It gives the touch of a flower to the poet and the poet reads tender words and the warmth of being in the neighbourhood of his sweetheart. On another level, one wonders whether the very wind that carries the poet’s message to his sweetheart brings a message warm and loving to the sweetheart too. We cannot call up any poem that sends the message to the sweetheart and brings the message from the sweetheart at the same time. Ambiguity is sine qua non with all good poetry. The drama and the wealth of ambiguity laden in the poem has made it a beautiful work of art.

The poet tells his addressee that thanks to Nature he can feel the warmth of her love even when she is not near. And there is a presence in absence. This is time and again . It is in the absence of ones sweetheart that one might best realize the import of ones sweetheart in ones life.