Translated by Pompen Hantrakool
Explicated by Dr Ramesh Chandra Mujhopadhyaya
To Be Aware
Moonlight on a tree
Scattered away
What little else to be gathered
It is night. It is night all over the existence and the globe. We are shattered from within driven by our multiplying desires. The world is jealousy lorn and wartorn. It is night indeed. And the true votary of peace and truth keeps awake in the night only. He is not carried off by the darkness of consumerism to dreams of material pleasures. Not deluded by dreams the poet keeps awake. The poet restrains his senses and goes out in the night. In search of moon light he goes out and braves the evil spirits that gambol in the night. Because it is in the night that mind not contaminated by the longing for this mans talents and that mans riches shines as the Moon in the skies.Unlike others who crave the articles displayed in the shopping malls for sensual pleasure the poet seeks something that bestows eternal life and deathless love for all things great and and small in the existence. The shopping malls are the night mares. Night mares take place in the night ; but the spectators of the night mares are oblivious of the night and darkness enveloping the world.Because being asleep they awake in an unreal world alight with artificial light. They are not aware of anything like moonlight that promises peace and love and eternal life. But the poet not led astray by desires and not driven to dreams is wide awake in what is night to common run of men . He goes out in quest of the moonlight in the middle of the night.While we the common run of men are in search of pleasures and objects of pleasures in the shopping malls made of the stuff of false dreams the poet is wide awake . Because he knows that when the world is flooded with the darkness of sorrow and ignorance truth and knowledge shines in its lunar glory cool and mellow. In the Upanishads –ancient Indian philosophical treatises there is a woman character in Maiteyee. When she is offered material wealth she exclaims what should she do with material pleasures. That which does not give nectar or deathless love and perennial joy and liberation for every one under the Moon is of no use to her. According to Indian mythology nectar is stored in the Moon. The poet also like Maitreyee is aware of the fact that material pleasures are mere tinsels appearing like diamonds.He renounces them in quest of Moonlight. Nothing less than peace love pure consciousness and infinitude can satisfy the poet. But when the poet is outdoor in quest of moonlight he finds that it is the tall trees that scattered away the same.Moonlight obstructed by the web densely woven with the leaves of the tall trees is not filtered on the ground But what else the poet can ask for except moonlight. Here is an aesthetics. A poet is one who goes out at the hour which is called by the worldly men Night to retrieve moonlight. True the poet finds it scattered. But one wonders whether Moon has espied the poets longing for moonlight or not. Because Moon is always a witness to all human efforts to achieve love and knowledge. We find the Moon as the witness to love. Was not the Moon only witness to the love vows taken by Kieu and Kim Trong?
Vang trang vang vac gia tro
Dinh ninh hai mieng mot loi song song
Toc to can van tac long
Tram nam lac mot chu dong den xuong
The Moon shines brightly from above
And we speak to each other love
Our deeper passions will bind us to gether
Like finest silk threads
For all time to come
This is what we pledge
Queen Moon from the empyrean heights has surely witnessed the pledge of the poet Mai Van that nothing less than moonlight can satisfy his longings in life.
Explicated by Dr Ramesh Chandra Mujhopadhyaya
Text
To Be Aware
Moonlight on a tree
Scattered away
What little else to be gathered
Explicatio
It is night. It is night all over the existence and the globe. We are shattered from within driven by our multiplying desires. The world is jealousy lorn and wartorn. It is night indeed. And the true votary of peace and truth keeps awake in the night only. He is not carried off by the darkness of consumerism to dreams of material pleasures. Not deluded by dreams the poet keeps awake. The poet restrains his senses and goes out in the night. In search of moon light he goes out and braves the evil spirits that gambol in the night. Because it is in the night that mind not contaminated by the longing for this mans talents and that mans riches shines as the Moon in the skies.Unlike others who crave the articles displayed in the shopping malls for sensual pleasure the poet seeks something that bestows eternal life and deathless love for all things great and and small in the existence. The shopping malls are the night mares. Night mares take place in the night ; but the spectators of the night mares are oblivious of the night and darkness enveloping the world.Because being asleep they awake in an unreal world alight with artificial light. They are not aware of anything like moonlight that promises peace and love and eternal life. But the poet not led astray by desires and not driven to dreams is wide awake in what is night to common run of men . He goes out in quest of the moonlight in the middle of the night.While we the common run of men are in search of pleasures and objects of pleasures in the shopping malls made of the stuff of false dreams the poet is wide awake . Because he knows that when the world is flooded with the darkness of sorrow and ignorance truth and knowledge shines in its lunar glory cool and mellow. In the Upanishads –ancient Indian philosophical treatises there is a woman character in Maiteyee. When she is offered material wealth she exclaims what should she do with material pleasures. That which does not give nectar or deathless love and perennial joy and liberation for every one under the Moon is of no use to her. According to Indian mythology nectar is stored in the Moon. The poet also like Maitreyee is aware of the fact that material pleasures are mere tinsels appearing like diamonds.He renounces them in quest of Moonlight. Nothing less than peace love pure consciousness and infinitude can satisfy the poet. But when the poet is outdoor in quest of moonlight he finds that it is the tall trees that scattered away the same.Moonlight obstructed by the web densely woven with the leaves of the tall trees is not filtered on the ground But what else the poet can ask for except moonlight. Here is an aesthetics. A poet is one who goes out at the hour which is called by the worldly men Night to retrieve moonlight. True the poet finds it scattered. But one wonders whether Moon has espied the poets longing for moonlight or not. Because Moon is always a witness to all human efforts to achieve love and knowledge. We find the Moon as the witness to love. Was not the Moon only witness to the love vows taken by Kieu and Kim Trong?
Vang trang vang vac gia tro
Dinh ninh hai mieng mot loi song song
Toc to can van tac long
Tram nam lac mot chu dong den xuong
The Moon shines brightly from above
And we speak to each other love
Our deeper passions will bind us to gether
Like finest silk threads
For all time to come
This is what we pledge
Queen Moon from the empyrean heights has surely witnessed the pledge of the poet Mai Van that nothing less than moonlight can satisfy his longings in life.
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