A Thai English poem by Pompen Hantrakool explicated

Thai English Poetry

Sad Silence –a poem by Pompen Hantrakool

Explicated by Dr Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya

Text

People always call on happiness

Desire wealth and prosperity

The body enjoys itself and is always puffed up to the utmost

The spirit cries out with sad silence

Explication

Psychological hedonism claims that every human being hankers after happiness and happiness should be the standard by which human  action should be judged. No wonder people therefore call on happiness. To call on means to visit or to have recourse to..They seek happiness without. May be the attainment of sensual pleasure and pleasures is their be all end all. They might visit restaurants to satisfy their gluttony and thirsting tongue. They  may  rush to beautiful sights of Nature or to cinemahalls dance performances or operas to give pleasure to the eye . They might go to  hear songs and orchestras to please their ears. They might sojourn in lovely gardens or yearn for perfumes to please their noses.They might go for opposite sex or for kurlons and pillows to satisfy their sense of touch.Mind is the sixth sense.And the mind often dreams of utopias and eldorados  or the Sukhothai  era of bygone days that are beyond the sphere of sorrow. This is not all . The mind of an individual must be proud of ihe status that the individual enjoys in the society.To that end he or she may be given to reveries or else to poetry through which wish fulfillment could be achieved. Or else one might visit supermarkets. In order that they achieve  happiness they desire wealth and prosperity.But these things have impact on the body only.The mind which is the epiphenomenon of body might be also engrossed with these..Be that as it may fed with the objects of six  senses  one might be puffed up. That is one might be out of breath. One might get exhausted taking part in the rat race.Ones senses and body might be prey to too much of sensual enjoyment. Ones mind might be hysteric. Or else ones mind might be swollen with pride. Obesity excess of cholesterol and other likely things might reign on him.Or else one might be the monarch of all that one surveys. The glory that was Rome and the grandeur that was Greece might all belong to him. But  does he or she become happy thereby?We often judge ourselves from without. How much do we earn? How much do we spend?Whether we pay tax due to the government? Whether we are all for war in times of war and whether we are all for peace when there is peace.Does the medical check up pronounce that one is in good health?These and many other such indicators might pronounce whether one is in happy state or not.But is that all. Deep down ones being there is a self that remains starved.The more the body is served the more the inner self suffers. The inner self has no language. The inner self is dumb.But the poet seems to hear the silent but loud cries of the inner self that rends the  world and the very being of the person who calls on happiness. It is sad silence indeed . When Pompen says—the spirit cries out with sad silence—pale kings and pale princes pale ehtrepreneurs pale merchants death pale are they all in our minds eye.They cry---  Happiness the beautiful  beau has placed us in the thrall. Pompens poems are always as simple and lucid as a dewdrop on a blade of grass. But they are too deep for tears