Vietnamese poetry

A  Poem composed in Vietnamese

Composed by Mai Van Phan

Translated into English by Pompen Hantrakool

Explicated by Dr Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya

Text

Pomelo Flower

A fragrance spreads in a garden

A singing voice of treepie

Comes from each raceme of flower

Explication

The very name pomelo is interesting. May be it is derived from the two words pome or apple and melon. And of course one wonders whether pomelo flowers give us the intimation of something sweet and sour very pleasant to eat during summer. Of course pomelo is what they call buoi in Vietnam perhaps

The poem opens with a sentence in the simple present—A fragrance spreads in the garden. This is remarkable. The poet does not speak of a garden overflowing wih fragrance or where fragrance is already there. The poet perceives that a fragrance spreads in  the garden where he is. Well, the poet is in a garden. It is a place where a man is carefree. And  the poet perceives in the garden that a fragrance spreads.May be for a time there was no wind. And now there is a breeze which is spreading the fragrance.Even if there were no  perceptible  breeze  fragrance could spread itself with the burgeoning of an inflorescence. But why does the fragrance spread? To draw the butterflies  for sure. And a poet cannot but be gay in a garden environment.Unlike  us a poet does not determine beforehand what he should see.In a garden certainly a mans mind is not obsessed with any a priori notion, The true poets mind is empty’ And he can perceive any chance fragrance spreading.

The second line of the poem is—A singing voice of tree pie. Does the poet read a fragrance in the singing voice or does he read a singing voice in the fragrance?  It is an instance of synaesthesia.Or else while  a fragrance is spreading there is a singing voice.Is it a note of joy? The poet hears a treepie.Well a treepie has a wide repertoire of calls.So  the poet leaves us to guess the true import of the birds note.The second line and third line together tell us that a singiing voice of a treepie comes from each raceme of flower. That shows that there are numerous inflorescences in the garden and in every inflorescence there is a tree pie seated. Think of that . The white big pomelo flowers and the blackhead variegated treepies together  make the garden a  grand sight for gods to see. The garden loud with fragrance reminds us of the lost Eden , the garden of innocence. The spreading fragrance might suggest that the garden is expanding. We wish the garden  spread all over the earth.