Sound in Mai Van Phan
Mai Van Phan is a poet of the ear. He has an uncanny ear for
sound.And he makes strange and beautiful sense
from the earmind.
He can not see a flock of birds.But he can hear them
gathering and flap their wings. It is twilight. The flapping of the birds only
underlines the engulfing silence and
reminds the poet and the readers that it is the hour when one could withdraw
from the world without and plunge
oneself into prayers and meditation and adventures within. Is it not a call for
soul searching?
When there is the recitation of Buddhist scriptures a centipede slips away
into the inner world
In the gong of a bell
the poet hears the groans of humanity
The river alight in
the moon gives the sound of sedge mat being woven.Sedge mat weaving is one of
the major occupations of the villages of
Vietnam. The poet hears the music of cottage industry in Nature.
A rustling sound at the door sill during the final night of
the year Does it not announce to ring
out the old and ring in the new?
And the fragrance of flowers
sings. A singing voice of treepie
comes from each raceme of a flower.
The Chri stmas flower –an
ivy or a mistletoe--splashes
But angst lurks in
human hearts. Hence the poet fears that someone who is not friendly might ring
the bell.The eerie absence of the sound of a bell might be as real as the
presence of its sound.
The poet breathes silently to hear a colony of bats flying
through a cage of light. Here the juxtaposition of hushed breathing with the
loud bats focuses on how the poet
controls his breath to listen to over mind rhythm
The poet silently trots grazing step by step stooping on a
book.The silence without makes the dialogue within loud . Reading a book implies loud conversation with the author
within the heart of the reader although it cannot be heard by any third person.
The poet walks on tiptoes lest the colloquy of the sparrows
is disturbed
Just as the new born are greeted with songs and prayers and incense offered to gods so do the twitter of
birds and fragrance greet the fresh
leaves to come In other words Nature turns into a temple in this imagery
The sound of a b ird dropping on the water surface only
suggests how the sky meets the water.
A lot of talking in a narrow house silences the poets mind
and he espies a mantis
A waterfall the sound
of a gibbon and an insect create a symphony that never ends .Because it recurs
in the poets memory. This is an instance of vipaka in Buddhist psychology.
The sound of silence is pronounced in the moon over the
raging storm
In the silence of the dying night the sound of weevils
eating wood only tells us that slight
thoughts of kindness and love or of hatred and jealousy act untiringly to pull
down whatever is apparently firm in us.
While the river silently washes its face the herons and the
bitterns make booming sound.That is the call to mate. The river at once turns
into a maid facelifting. Her lovers are getting rest less
An wooden fish makes sounds. It stands for the illusory world and its loud sound signifies nothing But although the heron is the
role model of a meditator the heron fumbles at it.This is because Lord
Buddha never ignored the groans of the existence even though he knew that they
have no essence
Then there is a raspy and gravelly sound of a bird.It
signifies danger. Any forecast of danger is like a light that shows the path in
the encircling gloom. In short with the poet the harshness of life shows the way out from the mesh that is life.
The large marsh bird
of the heron family bittern gives an unwelcome harsh call. It is a solitary
bird thrice mentioned in the Bible. Out
of them it is twice mentioned in Isiah. May be the b ittern foretells the destruction of the
Babylons and Ninevehs of today. But the
civilization is as deaf as a scare crow. It does not hear what the bittern
says. The civilization of today is as helpless as a scarecrow. We must not be
dismayed by its appearance.
Thus the charmed world of Mai Van Phans poetry is loud with
plethora of sounds ranging from the boom of the herons to the droning sound of
a bluebottle and to feeble whispers and silence.There are cries of distress.
There are calls to meditate.It is a
world where fragrance is heard
The water boils. It gives alarm.The pot consequently tinkles.The
pots lid therefore cries.The three sounds brought together as it were to
communicate the feeling of a person who is getting transformed. His outer shell which is the body however puts up
a resistance to his aspirations..
The poet observes that wounded animals give out cries.But
that helps the hunters to detect them and kill them. Poetry here is in pity.
The poet is all ears on a water surface in the neighbourhood
of the realm of fishes. We eavesdrop with the poet the story of a fish
The large marsh bird of the heron family bittern gives an
unwelcome harsh call. It is a solitary bird
thrice mentioned in the Bible. Out of them it is twice mentioned in
Isiah. May be the b ittern foretells
the destruction of the Babylons and
Ninevehs of today. But the civilization is as deaf as a scare crow. It does not
hear what the bittern says. The civilization of today is as helpless as a
scarecrow. We must not be dismayed by its appearance.
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