Translated into English by Pompen Hantrakool
Explicated by Dr Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya
Extruded roots
Aiming at the sky
A little stem
Roots do not always dive underground. The roots of the banyan tree often emerge from the branches and dangle in the air. They are of course prop roots directed to wards the ground. But there are also plants whose roots are aerial. They directly drink water from the air. This happens in rain forests. Mangroves have roots feeding on air. They exchange gases from the atmosphere. The oxygen content of the soil where mangroves grow are not enough. Hence there are extruded roots to take oxygen from the air. The present poem dwells on a plant with extruded roots aimimg at the sky. May be the mangrove plants in the Red River delta where the poet was born has inspired this imagery.But what does the plant stand for? Deuteronomy 20-19 says that man is a tree of the field. According Torah mans roots are deep underground unmoving and serene drawing sustenance from the forefathers .The roots of the plants also go deep into the soil . Or else they are aerobic perhaps. But here is a plant with extruded or forced roots aiming at the sky.
Trees are a recurrent feature in Vietnamese myths. A banyan tree went up from the earth and struck its roots in the Moon.A tree gave fruits. A bird ate the fruits In exchange it gave the poor but honest owner of the tree ample gold
Then there is the tree of life or the tree with its roots going down to netherlands and excelsioring to the skies and beyond.
The shamans go up and down the tree and visit the heaven and the worlds below the earth in trances
Unlike these trees the Shrimadbhagavadgita a Hindu scripture describes the cosmic tree as an inverted one with its leaves and branches constituting the world and roots diving into heaven. In Jewish Kabalah the inverted tree stands for the nervous system in man which has the roots in the cranial and branches distributed among the other limbs of the body
In a vision the poet finds a plant with extruded roots aiming at the skies and a little stem. One wonders whether the image of this plant speaks of an aesthetics and the poets aspirations. Literature commonly has its roots in the earthiness of the earth and in the everyday world ; but its efflorescence is above the world. And there is a qualitative difference between the world of the flower and everyday world of ours ;between the world of mud from which the lotus springs and the world above the water where the lotus blooms; between the world of literature and the war-torn jealousy-lorn everyday world of ours. But our poet has different aims.He seeks sustenance from heaven and ether and air. The senses of the common run of poets draw the material of poetry from the worldly life. its tears and smiles. But the poet toils hard and forces his senses to draw the material from supra mundane plane. He extrudes his roots aiming at the sky. He will cull the pearls of wisdom from heaven and the skies and reproduce the same in human language or poetry so that humanity could feed on the heavenly beauty and fragrance of his poetry. The poet is an unacknowledged leader of men. Although the stem or the poets body is little if he can derive his sustenance from the skies he can move the world into melting mood and charge it with the spirit of universal love and kindness. And everyman can emulate the poet. Vietnamese myths describe the people as descendants from heaven. Hence the poems nostalgia for heaven
Explicated by Dr Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya
Text
Extruded roots
Aiming at the sky
A little stem
Explicatio
Roots do not always dive underground. The roots of the banyan tree often emerge from the branches and dangle in the air. They are of course prop roots directed to wards the ground. But there are also plants whose roots are aerial. They directly drink water from the air. This happens in rain forests. Mangroves have roots feeding on air. They exchange gases from the atmosphere. The oxygen content of the soil where mangroves grow are not enough. Hence there are extruded roots to take oxygen from the air. The present poem dwells on a plant with extruded roots aimimg at the sky. May be the mangrove plants in the Red River delta where the poet was born has inspired this imagery.But what does the plant stand for? Deuteronomy 20-19 says that man is a tree of the field. According Torah mans roots are deep underground unmoving and serene drawing sustenance from the forefathers .The roots of the plants also go deep into the soil . Or else they are aerobic perhaps. But here is a plant with extruded or forced roots aiming at the sky.
Trees are a recurrent feature in Vietnamese myths. A banyan tree went up from the earth and struck its roots in the Moon.A tree gave fruits. A bird ate the fruits In exchange it gave the poor but honest owner of the tree ample gold
Then there is the tree of life or the tree with its roots going down to netherlands and excelsioring to the skies and beyond.
The shamans go up and down the tree and visit the heaven and the worlds below the earth in trances
Unlike these trees the Shrimadbhagavadgita a Hindu scripture describes the cosmic tree as an inverted one with its leaves and branches constituting the world and roots diving into heaven. In Jewish Kabalah the inverted tree stands for the nervous system in man which has the roots in the cranial and branches distributed among the other limbs of the body
In a vision the poet finds a plant with extruded roots aiming at the skies and a little stem. One wonders whether the image of this plant speaks of an aesthetics and the poets aspirations. Literature commonly has its roots in the earthiness of the earth and in the everyday world ; but its efflorescence is above the world. And there is a qualitative difference between the world of the flower and everyday world of ours ;between the world of mud from which the lotus springs and the world above the water where the lotus blooms; between the world of literature and the war-torn jealousy-lorn everyday world of ours. But our poet has different aims.He seeks sustenance from heaven and ether and air. The senses of the common run of poets draw the material of poetry from the worldly life. its tears and smiles. But the poet toils hard and forces his senses to draw the material from supra mundane plane. He extrudes his roots aiming at the sky. He will cull the pearls of wisdom from heaven and the skies and reproduce the same in human language or poetry so that humanity could feed on the heavenly beauty and fragrance of his poetry. The poet is an unacknowledged leader of men. Although the stem or the poets body is little if he can derive his sustenance from the skies he can move the world into melting mood and charge it with the spirit of universal love and kindness. And everyman can emulate the poet. Vietnamese myths describe the people as descendants from heaven. Hence the poems nostalgia for heaven
No comments:
Post a Comment