A Poem by Gjeke Marinaj explicated

 A Poem by Gjeke Marinaj

Explicated by Dr Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya

Text

Music splashes the ceiling

Like a breaker on rocks

Note spray and drumbeat

Seep between bodies

Girls bathe in their own radiant heat

Heave and curve of breath

Cause waves

In their partners footwork

Sweat beads glint nightlight

Like pearls strung down backbones

And along edges of shoulder blades

Fingers intertwine

Lips warm lips

Like sun and saltwater

The crowd swells toward me

A thousand ways in

Not a rift to ride out

Somewhat denser

Am  I

Than the haze of loose notes

In the hall

Explication

The poem opens dramatically..The very phrase music splashes  turns music or sound into a liquid that strikes with a splash. Sound here turns into liquid only to be turned again into sound.Thus sound is at the beginning and sound at the end. Where does the music strike?Well it strikes the ceiling that is the roof of a hall opposite the floor.Ceiling could as well mean the limits. We are in a situation where music is loud punctuated by beats. It seeks to shatter the limits that imprison us perhaps. We are in a huis clois or closed door room.What can shatter its limits and break open its roof so that the blue deep is laid bare before our eyes.?.Music strikes the ceiling like a breaker. A lively instance of synaesthesia.Music appeals to the ear.That which we hear is being compared with that which we perceive with our eyes. Music here is visual. When a wave clashes with a rock and is turned into foam it is a breaker.We can see with our minds eye waves of music or sound waves breaking on the ceiling and becoming  foams of sound. A  mist of fine sound particles  a jet of fine sound particles are soaked by the bodies May be under the impact of the sound the girls are warm. And they bathe in their own radiant heat.It might be human girls  if we visualize the environment as a hall where music rocks the ceiling. Or they might be the mermaids if we visualize the sound of waves splashing  the lower surface of the cloud limiting vertical visibility.These girls or mermaids in their radiant heat cause waves in their partners footwork. In other words the heat generated by the women sway the feet of their men partners up and down or to and fro, Beads of sweat glint in the night light. So this is night  when dreams and the most extraordinary events take place. It is night but not wholly dark. Because the night light is there.It is dim.May be the moon is also there . But it is both small and dull. And in that dim light apparitions might show up.And beads of sweat glint in the night light. The droplets from the splashing waves sparkle on the bodies of mermaids or the naiads. Or else they shine on the bodies and faces of the young men and women gay. They suggests that they are dancing in ecstasy and their bodies are sweating profusely. Sweat beads glint like pearls strung down back. The imagery rivals photography. And the poet can espy fingers intertwine along the edges of scapula.Lips mingle like sun and salt water.The imagery shifts from the movie depicting a fest among men and women  to an eerie fest in Nature where nymphs  are adancing. And there sunlight kisses the saltwater.. Does the water stand for the seanymphs ? Do  the sunrays stand for the gods who unite with the sea nymphs Thus here is a poem that transports us from human world  to the world of elemental nature to and fro.So long the poet has been a mere spectator of these events But all of a sudden the spectacle swells. The crowd swells towards the poet. A thousand ways in but not a rift to ride out. It seems that the poet is somewhat denser than the loose notes of the cosmic hall. Since the poet is somewhat denser than the music about him he can plunge into it and enjoy it. There must be a distance between the spectator and the spectacle.Or else there cannot be any aesthetic enjoyment. But of course the two must be made of the same stuff. Or else one cannot share the other. One cannot enjoy the other. But there is a time when the spectator and the spectacle  mingle and one cannot remain separate from  the other. The poem dwells on the thrilling moment when the two are on the verge of mingling. It likens the space where two rivers mingle or a river mingles with the sea. It likens the time when day and night mingle call it twilight or dawn.And here is jouissance. The poem is a manifesto of aesthetics. It has been put forward in a dramatic form where the natural and the supernatural embrace each other and there is a haze.