Making a Nest a Vietnamese Poem explicated

 Making a Nest

A  Vietnamese Poem

Composed by Mai Van Phan

Translated into English by

Pompen Hantrakool

Explicated by

 Dr Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya

Text

A Flock of sparrows nest on the roof

I walk on tip toes

Below the landlords  descendants

Explication

The poem opens with a flock of sparrows nesting  on a roof.They are house sparrows. A sparrow is a small bird  no bigger than a tennis ball. The sparrows are small birds and they are social birds.Wherever they go they go in flocks, each flock consisting of eight or ten birds. No wonder that the poet  catches sight of a flock of sparrows  and we can infer that they are chirping and chattering to communicate among them. And the poet does not disturb them or intimidate them. Because the poet says that he walks on tiptoes  lest the birds are scared.The poet walks on tiptoes below the land lords descendants.The phrase land lords descendants is significant.Who are the landlords? Surely it is not man who is the landlord in whose built space the sparrows have built their nests. In fact private property is a myth.There cannot be any private property. The earth and its resources  is the common inheritance of all. How come man appropriates the earth and its resources  in his self interest depriving the birds and beasts and snakes who have equal rights with man to earth and its resources? Was there any social contract between man and the rest of Nature including trees plants birds and beasts etcetera by which the right to earth was given up in favour of man? Nope. When the poet describes the birds as the true landlords of the place where they assemble he announces without any hesitation that property is theft. Unlike us the common run of men the poet tiptoes below the descendants of the lamdlords viz the birdlings in the nest lest they are disturbed.The message is clear.The ownership of the earth and its resources should be free for all. Nature should be restored to its right ful authority over earth. We should live in Nature with love and due regards for Nature. We should live here bent down with reverence as one lives in a temple or a monastery . On the contrary man has usurped land from Nature and claims that he owns the land.The first man who occupied a plot of land and announced that it was his own  started private property and inaugurated the civil society. When some men owned the land and the rest of the men were turned landless capitalism was born. Where should the landless work to get their daily bread? They must work in the land of the landlords and thus  exploitation of the landless began.Just as we should let the birds and beasts of Nature live as they want so should we be respectful to the poor and the have nots. The sparrows are fond of human habitation . They build their nests in the eaves and crevices of the houses built by men. They have been living  with us with men for at least last ten thousand years. .But it is a pity that there has been a dramatic decrease in  the population of sparrows in last twenty four years.The poets respectful treatment of the sparrows  compels us to think seriously over the issue.Now a days we build houses in such a fashion that sparrows cannot nest there. But birds nests are good omens.Shakespeare in Macbeth observes that a bird has made in a castle its pendent bed and procreant cradle where they must breed and haunt. With Shakespeare this is a good omen. The air he observes is delicate.Sparrows are associated with Aphrodite. They stand for love and good fortune. But to repeat the sparrows and the birds cannot build their nests in modern houses. Pesticides used in agriculture have deprived them of their main food the seeds and the pests. Mobile phones are also to blame for the decrease in the population of the sparrows.In short we do not have any respect for these tiny creatures of Nature although the Bible says that Gods eye is on the sparrows as well. The poets reverent treatment of sparrows only remind us how irreverent we are to these  little things of Nature.The poet as we have observed walks softly lest the sparrows are disturbed. The sparrows are in a flock. So the poem in its suggestion indicates that the birds are plunged in communal chirping and the space is loud with their chirrups and the poet is all ears to that . We imagine that their chirpings will have no end in the enchanted house where the poet visits. It is absolutely legitimate to infer about the poet from the poem . We guess he is the type of the wise who loves all things both great and small.