Seasons in Mongolia by Myagmar AMARKHUU Explicated

Seasons  In Mongolia

By Myagmar AMARKHUU

Explicated by

Dr Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya

I run my fingers

Down the calendar

Through the middle

I love

 the thrill

of moving from side to side

And through the calendar

Hot warm cool cold

The whole year

 I feel the weather

Through the paper

These seasons in Mongolia

Rare and wonderful

Explication

A mandala is a focus of cosmic forces. Everything in the world of eye and ear is a mandala because everything in the world could be the focal point of consciousness. A yantra is a kind of mandala which could function as a tool for developing the powers of perception.A yantra is what it is. But when we concentrate on it  we become aware of its higher nature. Here is a poem which looks upon a calendar as yantra. This is unique. The poet runs his finger down the calendar and feels the seasons of Mongolia.In other words a calendar is not a mere chart showing the days weeks and months of a year.Its true nature is revealed when one is focused on it.The poet is thrilled to feel the seasons of Mongolia while his fingers are running down the calendar. The seasons of Mongolia are rare and beautiful.Yes Mongolias temperature roughly shifts from plus forty degree centigrade to minus forty degree centigrade.It is as it were a shift from  the upper octave to the lower octave of a harmonium or vice versa. Mongolia   has four seasons in spring summer autumn and winter . Voyaging through these seasons Mongolia  reaches the heights and depths of temperature. With the advent of each season  they shift their residence.They  raise new camps or gers. They are not taken aback by this change of seasons and change of residence. On the contrary with the advent of each new season they make merry. They celebrate every change in the season with a party. They are thrilled with the season change.When the poet says—I love the thrill of moving from side to side-- he means that he is also thrilled with the season change and the change in residence.Unlike the rest of mankind the Mongolians are never shut up in monotony—one place, one season one temperature one place for earning livelihood and so on. Unlike the urban life of the civilised countries  that seeks to resist the decrees of nature and opts for a sedentary and changeless and unvarying  way of life  the Mongolians  live in close unison with Nature.They enjoy the seasons of Mongolia. The poem under study communicates the thrill that the Mongolians feel  with season change , the thrill that they feel living in close touch with Nature.

The poem is the result of perception with touch and it is a manifesto of tactile aesthetics.