A Vietnamese Poetry in English Translation Explicated - The Road

The RoadBy Phan Thi Thanh Nhan
Translated by Tho Phan Thi Thanh Nhan
Explicated by Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyay

If you go with your darling just remember a small thing

The road we used to walk on

Please dont go there with another one, not me

The trees are growing faster now

The branches are longer for their leaves to have soft touch

Both of us who knows why

Turn far far away on the separated roads 

If you go for a new darling

Please avoid our first happy road

Emotions such as love and affection are inevitable with human heart. The poem entitled ‘The Road’ is an instance of the same. It is a simple poem depicting wounded love. The poem is a kind of dramatic monologue uttered in the parole of a woman. Since it is a monologue the speaker who is a woman is thinking aloud. The addressee who is a man might be present before her. And again he might not be there. The speaker addresses a man with whom she was engaged earlier. Right now they are separated and far away from each other. The speaker believes that the man, her erstwhile lover, has now taken fancy on another woman. The speaker tells her erstwhile lover that love if he  must another girl but for goodness’s sake he must not go with his new love along the path trodden by the speaker and himself:

The road we used to walk on
Please don’t go there with another one

It raises a problem with us who overhear the speaker thinking aloud. Why should not the man walk along the same road which was pursued by him during his first love? Does the speaker mean that the man must not betray his new love the way he had betrayed his first love, that is, the speaker. But the second stanza of the poem says nope to such doubts. The lady says that neither she and nor her erstwhile lover knows why they were separated from each other:

Both of us, who knows why, 
Turn far away on the separated roads.

This is a singularly unique kind of parole different from the parole of the lovers in literature. While the lovers blame one another for separation between them, if any, here is a deserted lover who does not blame her counterpart for the separation of hers from her counterpart. Thus she debunks causality or rather her vocabulary does not have the notion of cause and effect. Everything is random in the multiverse. The behavior of an electron is random at bottom. Or else, no one cause can explain an event. Here we must invoke Pratitya samutpattivada to explain any event whatever. Since the speaker does not blame her counterpart for getting separated from her the poem speaks of love for everybody or metta of Buddhist lore. She however forbids her erstwhile lover from taking his new love along the road which the speaker and he had trodden earlier. Because

The trees are going faster now
The branches are longer for their leaves to have soft touch

The above lines show that the path earlier trodden by the speaker and her counterpart was a path through a sylvan environment laden with trees. The speaker tells her counterpart that those trees have grown taller than ever. The branches have been longer in the mean time. Their soft leaves are time and again. And the erstwhile lover of the speaker must not destroy that growing natural environment bordering the road taken earlier by trodding the same path with his new lady love. This is a unique imagery. On one level it speaks of ruralisation as opposed to urbanization. Judged on the whetstone of eco-criticism the above two lines are superb because they tell us that Nature must not be polluted and contaminated. Rather we should let Nature grow in her elements. The trees should grow tall the branches should be long their leaves should be soft. The tree is a value here. We can feel the touch of the leaves. Or another plane however true love should go back to Nature to find its consummation. The English poet Wordsworth tells us that when he was amidst Nature with his wife Mary Hutchinson he could put a garland around her neck. Because a man and woman can be in their elements only  amidst Nature.  The poem is singularly unique because it focuses on the  road and does not give that much importance to the travellers along the road. The conflict  between the lovers is not taken into account. But the importance of the road of love has been brought to the foreground. On another level one wonders where the road is. The road exists very much in the mind of the speaker. The trees and the branches have grown only after the lovers are separated from each other. Thus love seems to have its efflorescence only when the lovers are separated from each other. It is only through separation from the loved ones that lovers can feel the love for the loved one in its full manifestation. This is a paradox. But paradoxes are the stuff with which the finest poems are forged. The branches, the speaker says, are longer for their leaves to have soft touch. In other words the experience of the  life's journey with a loved one  passing into memory becomes taller with longer branches with leaves longing for soft touches. The speaker says that the memories of her journey with her counterpart should be remembered with kindness and compassion. One wonders whether this poem itself  is a leaf from the tree of love that has grown taller and that has stretched its branches  in the mind of the speaker in course of the time since her separation from her sweetheart. Any experience that sinks into the mind grows like the plant and could be transformed into poetry. And of course such leaves, such branches or such love poems that spring from emotions recollected should be perused by the readers with love and tenderness.

A Vietnamese Poetry in English Translation Explicated - Blossom Season

Blossom Season

By Y Phuong
Translated by Nhue Anh dich
Explicated by Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyay

Season of blossom

Season of women

Ruddy faces

Running like a wind to the mountains, carrying their husbands on their shoulders

Season of Blossom

Season of men

Becoming tired out like a gloomy shirt

Passing by, sleepily leaning on fences

The poem juxtaposes two contrasting visions. In the first stanza a season of blossom brings forth a time when it is the women who are the protagonists. The poet finds healthy red faces running like the wind to the mountain, carrying their husbands on their shoulders. The mountain seems to stand for perennial happiness that is not subject to decay or death. The second stanza depicts another season of blossom when it is the men who are the protagonists.  While the women are ruddy faces the men are like gloomy shirts.  In another words they are mere apparitions or ghosts whose shirts are only visible. While the women run like the wind to the mountains the men pass by sleepily leaning on fences. In other words there is death in life in the figures of men whereas there is life in death in  the ruddy faces of women. The latter are alight with zest for love and life. They are  carrying their husbands on their shoulders. Here family is a legitimation. The women are observing their family responsibility with love. They were looking forward to transport their loved ones to the heights of peace and happiness. But the men are unimaginative. They have no vision. They have no goal in life. They stand for thanatos. They are too self centred and too tired to think of their fellow men. Thus while women stand for the Eros or love and energy indomitable, the men stand for Thanatos or matter , dead and inert.  

This is a poem that impels us to look upon life, men and women from an emergent point of view. 

A Vietnamese Poetry in English Translation Explicated - Oh Stone

Oh Stone         

By Nguyen Duy.
Translated by Kenin Bowen and Nguyen Ba Chung
Explicated by Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyay

I stand in meditation before Ankors ruins

If stone can be so shattered what of human life?

Oh stone

let me inscribe a plea for peace


In the end in every war

Whoever won the people always lost

Ankor Bhat is one of the greatest temple towns on the earth and a world heritage site.  The main temple here is the Vishnu temple. The temple is famed to be the symbol of the Mount Meru which is the stay of the universe and impregnable. Besides Lord Vishnu is looked upon as the preserver of the multiverse. The poet stands before it and is lost in meditation. Ankor Bhat is in ruins. It is the ruins that impel the poet to meditate. The stone is deemed to be the most firm thing under the sun. The ruins of Ankor Bhat show that even stone can be shattered. If a piece of stone and a stone built temple could crumble down there is no surprise that we  witness human life is destroyed or put out of joints. The poet compares human life with a stone built temple. Compared with the life time of a temple the life time of a man is literally ephemeral. And yet do we not think that a human body however ephemeral is also as sacred as a temple? And it is a pity that all sacred things are tumbling down in front of our eyes. May be the Buddhist notion of impermanence is winking at the readers through the second line of the poem : 

 If stone can be shattered what of human life? 

Despite the fact that nothing is permanent in the existence the poet seeks to inscribe a plea for peace. Here we espy the portrait of Buddha silhouetted with ironical words. Though Lord Buddha knew that nothing is permanent in the world yet he sought to inscribe a plea for peace and love on the rocks of existence. The poet seeks to inscribe his plea on the stone so that it might linger for quite a long time But on another level does not the stone stand for a stony heart cruel and sans any love for fellow men? Just as Lord Buddha sought to inscribe his message in  every stony heart so does the poet seek to inscribe the language of love and peace on the cruel hearts of his time and of times to come.The poet addresses the stone and thereby dares address the cruel hearts and asks for their leave to inscribe the message of love in them. Because the poet full well knows that the cruel practices will  go on through all futurity. The poem ends with the two sad lines:

In the end in every war 

whoever won, the people always lost.

That is a lesson of history. Kings and princes and Presidents of the countries are ever engaged in vying with one another. Battles are lost and battles are won . But the lot of the common man ever remains the same sans hope.  Thus the poem is apparently weighed down with pessimism and sadness. the poet however feels that the  message of peace and love needs to be chanted over and  over again.

A Vietnamese Poetry in English Translation Explicated - The Field

The Field

Written by Tran Quang Quy

Translated in English by Unknown

Explicated by Ramesh Chandra  Mukhopadhyaya

Again I  hear the grass field at night overflowing profusely with moonlight

Somewhere footsteps stuck in thick mud

The aroma of hay blows across the field

The paddies

Like square insignia stamping human lives into muddy soil

Drop of sweats passing through generations

Spreading into shirts of dew, fading eyes of loved ones

The  earth giving birth to uncalculated seasons

Where my grand parents lay still

Their figure leave their legacy in the  rice seeds

The farmers go through their lives

Passing on a blunt hoe like a jewel

All of them harvested this field to gether

And this field has harvested them

I have opened my life

On my fathers plough slaving away

And deep down there in me there exists a sacred field with no harvest season

My mother cultivates and harvests kindness

The richness distilled from the suffering heart

She has released me onto the surface of the land

As if I were a seed to continue the generation of furrows

Greening  greening  a belief in emerald grass

Drifting away endlessly on human field

The  first line opens with—Again I hear etc. The very word again  suggests that the poet was away for a long time did not hear what he is hearing now. Again the poet hears the grassfield overflowing with moonlight. That shows that the poet was away from the sylvan environment for a long time. And now he is back  to the sylvan environment  which is dear to him. Here he can hear the grassfield overflowing with moon light.The poet has the ear for the silent voice of the grassfield. This helps the readers to hear the inaudible.The first line of the poem is musical withal. We hear a  sound and we see a grassfield overflowing with moonlight. This is an instance of synaesthesia. Does not moonlight stand for imagination? Does imagination have a free play where grassfields are abound?. The poet can see with his minds eye  footsteps stuck in the muds..The footprints in the mud make the landscape real before our eyes.The grass land is muddy. There must have been rains a little earlier. The aroma of hay blows across the field.The aroma of hay enhances the power of smell in the readers. The aroma of hay perhaps tells us that there is a nearby paddy field and the paddies there have been already reaped.

The paddies are the emblem that informs us straight that human life is inalienably connected with muddy soil.. Man has to earn his bread through hard toil  in the muddy soil of the field. Muddy soil is sacred; it has treasure in it for man to retrieve with the sweat of his brow. And the poet describes the human race as a flow of sweat passing from one generation to another.What are men but shirts of dew. This is an instance of metonymy. The sweat passes through the pores of earth and makes it muddy. Does not the sky sweat and the rains come upon the earth? And in turn the earth gives birth to many seasons----a season for sowing and a season for harvesting, a season for hard work and a season for merriment and so on.

It is in this earth that our forefathers have been buried. The rice seeds are their gifts. We have inherited the seeds the art of agriculture from them. And we must nurture them. We must properly use our inheritance from them to grow more food. Men in their elements are farmers and they  spend their whole lives in cultivating crops.Then they they pass on the hoe which digs the earth and extract the wealth therefrom. The blunt hoe is a jewel. This is a flat criticism of the values of the market oriented world. It is a pity that while which is essential for life has no value in the market, a piece of diamond which has nothing to do with the sustenance of life is sold for millions of dollars. Our value system should change. The blunt hoe has to deemed to be a jewel handed down to us by our forefathers. And the forefathers had worked together to dig the earth and  plough the field. There was a community life among them. But this is not all:

All of them  have harvested the field together

And this field has harvested them

Thus what is cause is itself the effect of effect and what is effect is itself the cause of cause. The idea of a first cause that something that does not itself need a cause is a myth and hence the  efficient cause and the material cause cannot be distinguished from one another. The producer and the produced cannot be separated from each other as well. The harvester harvests and the harvester got harvested by the harvest. And the process is being carried on without any beginning and it will be carried on without any end. These are flat repudiation of market economy.

The poem now navigates. In an autobiographical strain the poet remembers how opened his life on his fathers plough slaving away. And the poet seems to be proud of it. Because the concepts of master and slave and employer and employee have been exploded here. The father also stands for the time honoured rule of hard work and harvesting.

The field without also reminds one of the field within. This reminds a Bengali reader of a Bengali poet namely Ramprasad sen who laments that human heart lies fallow’ Had it been cultivated gold could be mined from the same. In Indian religion often the body is likened to a field and the same should cultivated by the mind. Thus the imagery of the sacred field within with no harvest season is archetypal.

The poem is clinched with the two lines:

My mother

Cultivates and harvests kindness

Thus the poem is singularly significant on many counts. It reminds of Thomas Gray:

Let not ambition mock their useful toil

Their homely joys and destinies obscure

Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile

The short and simple annals of the poor

The boast of heraldry and pomp of power the affluence of big corporate houses like HSBC or Microsoft –in short ambition is an accidental part of history. The real history of man narrates how the precious hoe is handed over from father to son and how the mantra of hard-work is  inherited by son from his father Human history is one of uninterrupted flow of karma. The harvest is derived from muddy earth. This might remind one of the Lotus Sutra. The lotus has its roots deep down into mud But the flower floats on the water. Mere production of food grains are not enough. The human society must be overflowing with the milk of kindness So cultivation of the field without is not enough. The cultivation of the field within is also a must. And it is the mothers  who have cultivated and harvested kindness and love. Our mothers are the role model to cultivate the field within or the heart. The grass field overflowing with moon light is the symbol of a brave new world to be forged where  economic wealth overflows with human love and kindness.

But this is not all. The mother suffers and it is from that suffering that the poet sprang . Any creation whatever is  preceded by sufferings. And it is suffering alone that distils richness. With love and kindness for all, the mother suffers and creates . A child is born. The child is the effect of a cause and yet he is the seed for bringing about fresh effects. The seed has to continue generation of furrows or trenches in the ground. There is polysemi in this imagery.The farmer is the efficient cause . The ground is the material cause. The harvest is the final cause. The poet or the child was the effect of mothers suffering. But the effect itself becomes the cause for furrowing fields as well to continue the human race. Thus no one cause is responsible for any event or effect and effect whatever could be the cause of different effects. Again the mother here is symbol the earth and earth is the symbol of the earth. This mother cult and the earth cult seem to be recurrent feature in modern Vietnamese poetry  We came across this motif in My Mother by poet Phan Thi Thanh. The seed or the poet is to continue the generation of furrows—greening and greening. Any thing be it a seed or a man or anything else exists through action , And the seed exists through greening but it has an a priori belief or inherited belief in emerald grass which stands for freshness and youth. The belief in a brave new world and activity of greening have no end . They go on though the individuals pass away. Thus despite change in history a pattern persists. The green field overflowing with moon light might remind one of Bodhichitta which persists let change do whatever it can.

A Vietnamese Poetry in English Translation Explicated - Do Leon

Do Leon

By Nguyen Duy 
Translated by Nguyen Do and Paul Hoover
Explicated by Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya

In my childhood I went to Na Bridge to fish

pulled my grandmothers skirt going to the Binh Lam flea market

caught sparrows in the ears of Buddhist sculptures

and sometimes stole eye dragon fruit at the Tran pagoda



In my childhood I played in the Cay Thi temple

and barefoot in darkness to watch the Song temples ceremony

The odor of white lily mixed with aloe wood smoke was delicate

The sorceress shadow staggered in the van melody


I didnt realize how miserable my grand mother was

She groped for crabs and skimmed for shrimps at Dong Quan

She carried green tea leaves to sell at Ba Trai

Quan Chao and Dong Giao; her shadow tottered on cold nights.



I was solid crystal between the real and the unreal

my grandmother and fairies Buddhists and saints

These were starving years the dong boiled but not yet done

Why did its smell  seem like white lily and aloe wood perfume?


America bombed my grand mothers house blew away

Song temple exploded blowing down other temples and pagodas

Saints and Buddhists were committed to leaving together

My grand mother went to sell eggs at Ken train station


I had been in the armya long time and never returned to my grand mothers home

As one riverbank increases the other decreases

When I realised I loved her it was too late

My grandmother now lies in a grass covered grave

The speaker in this poem recollects his childhood. As a child he went to the Na Bridge to fish. He used to cling to his grandmother’s skirt and go to the flea market where second hand articles are bought and sold. He played in the temple premises. He went bare foot in the dark on an evening to watch the ceremony at the Song temple. There aloe wood and lily were burnt. The child enjoyed the incense. And may be mantras were chanted there. The melody of the mantras seemed to dispel every evil omen. The child could see a sorceress staggering as it were.

Now on hindsight the child who has now grown up into a man can realize how poor his grandmother was. She used to catch crabs and shrimps for her living.  She carried green tea leaves to sell at the market. Her shadow tottered on the cold nights.

Recollecting these vignettes of childhood the speaker says that he was a solid crystal as it were between the two world’s one of the fairies and another which was real. Both the worlds reflected on him but he could not full well understand their import. In course of time America bombed and the grandmother’s house was blown away. Temples and pagodas crumbled. The saints and their Buddhist followers were scattered. The grand mother went to sell eggs at a railway station. In the mean time the speaker joined the army and never returned to his grandmother’s home but childhood memories lingered. The poem closes with the two lines:

When I realized I loved her, it was too late

My grandmother now lies in grass covered grave.

The poem is loaded with a bunch of proper names such as Na Bridge, Tran Pagoda, Cay Thi temple, Song temple, Dong Quan, Quan Chao, Dong Gia and Len train station. There is a symphony of proper names. It creates a strange land in the mind’s eye of the reader who does not belong to Vietnam. The poet makes this strange world vivid by way of touching upon some particulars. We can visualize how incense was being burnt at Song temple’s ceremony and how eye dragon fruits abounded at the Tran temple. It was indeed an idyllic landscape littered with temples and pagodas. They were in the main Buddhist shrines. Lord Buddha himself stands for peace and love.

But a landscape littered with temples and pagodas is not enough. There must be human touch about them. The temple campuses were playgrounds for children. The speaker remembers how he sometimes stole eye dragon fruits there.

The little child who sauntered in the temple campuses also clung to the skirt of his grandmother and went to the flea market. He also went with his grandmother to catch fish.

Thus, the portrait of the grandmother becomes vivid before our eyes. She used to take her grandchild along with her while doing her daily economic activities.  In his innocence the little child did not understand that they were very poor.

But the peaceful landscape did not last for long. America bombed. The temples and pagodas were razed to the ground. This is not all. The shelter of the grandmother was also blown up. In the mean time the child grew into a man. As a man he joined the army to defend his motherland against the aggressors. He was then away from his grandmother. But he could now realize how poor his grandmother was.

It seems that the poem is a parody of  Wordsworth’s famous poem ‘The Daffodils’. In his poem The Daffodils, Wordsworth chanced upon a host of daffodils dancing along the margin of a lake. The poet says:

I gazed and gazed but little thought

what wealth the show had to me brought.

Later when the poet was lying in a pensive mood the daffodils flashed upon his inward eye which was the bliss of solitude.  But here the vignettes of childhood recurred in the grown up speaker’s mind and the speaker now realized how poor his grandmother was.

The poem could draw the attention of the feminists. The speaker unlike the rest of us does not dwell on his father or grandfather as the bread earner. Here is a narrative where a grandmother is a protagonist. True that, the grandmother had been very poor and she had to catch fish and go to the market to sell them. But Time did not let her remain in that state. She was flung from the frying pan to fire. Her house was shattered. She had to shift from her usual economic activities to sell eggs at a railway station.

Recollections are not always pleasant.  In his thoughtless childhood the speaker did not understand whether his grandmother was rich or poor. When he was grown up he understood that his grandmother was poor. Thereafter a period of starvation followed. In his thoughtless childhood the speaker could not understand whether he loved his grandmother or not. But the grown up speaker by way of recollecting his past found that he loved her.  But the grandmother is no longer there. She is now in the grave. Wonderful reticence speaks volumes here. Firstly let us be focused on the child. With a child the antinomies do not exist. He cannot distinguish poverty from riches. He cannot distinguish between love from hatred. He is all love. But this world of childhood is shattered with age. While a child is more enveloped by sensations, with age one is more occupied with perceptions. While a child is more at the receiving end, a grown-up constructs the past by decoding his experiences.

There are of course villains and evil forces that shatter this idyllic world of childhood. America bombed and the world was out of joints. But that was not all. The real antagonist is Time. The grandmother at the outset catching crabs and later selling eggs becomes a tragic figure fighting onslaughts of Time without yielding to it.

One wonders whether the grandmother is the symbol of the earlier days of Vietnam itself . Ravages of war destroyed her. The speaker as well has been continuing his battle for life. 

The poem also depicts a conflict between times past and times present. The poem has been a perfect pattern through its recurrences and variations. In the temple the little child saw in his imagination a sorceress staggering in the smoke. It was the evil. It was being driven away by the rituals in the temple. Ironically enough, the same smoke and the odour showed up with bombing that proves that the sorceress had not really died during the temple rituals. And one wonders whether the rituals and the temples are at all of any avail? And yet do we not long to get back the landscape loud with temple bells and mantras?

Thus the poem is itself as hard as crystal where numerous emotions mingle into a solid that baffles analysis.

A Vietnamese Poetry in English Translation Explicated - Dalat -- Once with the Moon

Dalat – Once with the Moon
By Nguyen Duy Nhue

Translated by Nguyen Do and Paul Hoover
Explicated by Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyay

A Magical moon flickers in white fog

Whose wind flickers over the hills ?

The crunching sound of horse’s hoofs beat on the silent slope

A pine leaf faintly and dimly falls

You light a camp stove with tiny pieces of dry wood

The flame covers the emptiness between you and me

I avoid looking at you; you avoid looking at me

While our little teapot mumbles as it boils

But finally nothing is avoided

In their heart these wooden coals burn at their reddest

But their flame pretends to glimmer

And the odor of sap follows the drifting smoke.

The poem opens with a magical moon. Magical moon implies a moon that is different from the silver orb which we are wont to see in the blue deep. One wonders why it becomes magical moon. The next word- flickers- seems to resolve the problem. It is though very much the moon we are used to see in the nocturnal sky yet unlike the moon of every night it flickers. The moon is the lamp of the nightly sky. It gives light steadily but right now the moon light flickers or shines unsteadily. This makes the moon magical. One wonders whether the moon has been transformed into a magical one and whether the moon exerts some charm upon the world. Surely the moon of the poem does not shine in a clear sky. It flickers in white fog. In other words the moon could be at its full and yet it looks magical and different as because it shines from behind white fog. The English romantic poet par excellence Coleridge portrays a similar moon shining from behind a thin grey cloud-let that makes the moon both small and dull. Thus an eerie atmosphere is created. But here the moon shines behind a white fog. That is, the moon hides itself in a veil of light. It seems that truth is hidden in a veil of light. What does the veil stand for ? it might be the light of thought. The moon could be the poet hidden in the light of thought. But the poet’s self despite hiding himself in the light of thought shines forth in flickers penetrating the white fog. That is the paradox. Despite the fact that a poet hides himself behind a poem the poem could reveal the poet in flashes. This is an aesthetics. Roland Barths in his famous article “The Death ofan Author’ announces that the author is dead. His illustrious predecessors Nietzsche announced earlier that the God is dead but Nguen Duy seems to argue that just as we do not espy god in the creation and still just as god reveals himself in the creation similarly although we do not see the poet in a poem the poem betrays now and then in flickers the real self of the poet. Indeed a magical moon flickers in white fog. But how come the light of the moon becomes unsteady? The light of a lamp flickers when it is unsteady. What makes the light of the lamp unsteady? It is because of the wind that the lamp becomes unsteady. If the wind sometimes is strong and sometimes weak the light of the lamp becomes unsteady. And one might say the wind itself flickers. This is a case of metonymy. The poet asks – whose wind flickers over the hills?  While the magical moon flickers in white fog in the sky. Away over the hills the wind flickers. Thus here is  a nocturnal landscapes flickering in the moon. And therefrom we find the winds over the hills. Thus an un- earthy atmosphere is created. The flicker of the moon light and the flicker of the wind seem to be in unison with the crunching sound of horses hoofs that beat on the silent slopes. In other words, there are beats of lights and there are beats of sounds. Each beat of the sound underlies the silence. Each flicker of light could underline darkness. Thus the light and sound of the scene underlies the darkness and silence lurking behind. The fourth line of the poem reads – a pine leaf faintly and dimly falls. The fricative f here recurs only to remind us of the dryness or saplessness of the leaf. We can as it were hear the fall of a single sapless leaf. The sound only enhances the silence all about.

The next stanza begins with – you light a camp stove with tiny pieces of dry wood. The line suggests the existence of a camp in the afore described magical environment. The magical environment is being observed  and felt by the poet who is staying in a camp in the magical environment. And the poet is not alone in the camp because he addresses someone who lights a stove with tiny pieces of dry wood. The cooking gadgets do not exist in a camp. This shows that the poet is away from the comforts of his hearth and home. The stove is alighted and the flame covers the emptiness between the poet and his company. Earlier the stove was not alight. So even though the poet and his company were seated near each other both of them were left alone given to their thoughts. But now that the stove is alight the flame bridges the gap between the poet and his friend. The flame in other words is a substitute for language that connects two discrete humans. Each others face could be descried in the light of the flame. But the poet avoids looking at his friend despite the fact that right now he could see his friends face. Why does the poet avoid to look at his friend? May be the friends face might reveal some impending disaster which the poet seeks to avoid to look upon. In other words, we the readers of the poem are afraid that some ominous incident is in the offing. The poet avoids looking at  the friend and the friend avoids looking at the poet while the teapot mumbles as it boils. The mumble of the teapot only enhances the silence which pervades the whole atmosphere.

         The third stanza seems to clinch up the drama which informs us that finally nothing is avoided. In their heart the wooden coals burn . But their flames pretend to glimmer. It reminds us of the flicker of the magical moon in white fog and the flickers of the wind over the hills. This refrain of the imagery of flicker adds to the poem a mold of music. The poet adds that the odour of sap follows  the drift in smoke. The Nyaya philosophers of ancient India observes that we could infer that the hill is afire observing a smoke surrounding a hill. The hush-hush atmosphere in the camp  amidst the flicker of moon light and the sound of the horses hoofs from afar seem to suggest a situation where a tremendous fearsome disaster or encounter might take place . The poem is a triumph of symbolic art. It evokes a sense of fear and an occult silence in the hearts of the readers.  

A story of purana retold

uranas Retold 1 post by 1 author

Ramesh Mukhopadhyaya

19/03/2011

           Long time ago there was a very   very  old man. He had
married thrice. His first wife was as beautiful as a princess .She
brought with her a large amount of dowry from her father. Her father
was a prosperous trader .He fitted out countless vessels  that voyaged
across the seas to different countries ranging from Rangoon to Cape of
Good Hope laden with rich cargoes consisting of cinnamon gold and
muslin and other dainty things from the length and breadth of India .
But it is a pity that the old mans first wife died of cholera   all of
a sudden. So he went for a second wife .The  astrologer said that her
longevity was short . Because firstly Jupiter was ill placed in her
natal chart. Besides an ill disposed Saturn was aspecting   her
ascendant.  The second wife also died. He went for a third wife   .
She was the daughter of a rich land lord .She brought to her husband a
lot of wealth. She  lived till her husband reached the age of 75.Then
she died of asphyxia .The old man however was not tired of marrying.
He surveyed his past and found that he had earned a lot of riches
through marriage. He had by the by squandered away his wealth in many
ways. So he looked forward to a fourth wife .Nobody was willing to
give his or her daughter to an old man. But there was an orphan girl.
She lived in the house of a distant  relative of her . Though she was
not rich she was exceedingly   beautiful .  Her eyes were as deep as a
pond on which the shadows of cocoanut trees takes refuge. The old man
had in the mean time developed a number of diseases and physical
complaints that were usual with old age. His head was  already  bald.
His mouth was bereft of the teeth. Some times he would be down with
feats of asthma. He could not work properly because of his legs were
made useless due to sciatic pain.He felt that he was  in dire need of
a faithful wife who would look after him in his old age. So he got
married for the fourth time . He married the orphan girl. The little
girl who came  to his house hold as his wife was not only exceedingly
beautiful but also exceedingly faithful. The first wife of the old man
was garrulous. She was very greedy. She would eat away what ever good
food were there in the household without giving them to her husband .
The second wife was of sad disposition . She always complained that
she was lone and lorn. The third wife was shrewish . She used to beat
her husband twice a day -once in the morning and once in the
afternoon. Her face was like that of a lioness. She had little hair in
her head and her countenance was always angry. But the fourth wife was
like a fairy come to rescue the old man from all his sorrows. She
would smile   always . .The old man coughed and coughed . He used to
spit now then. The little girl would not complain .Despite the old
man, he kept her household clean . The old man suffered from a host of
ailments  .  He needed costly medicines and chosen diet as prescribed
by the doctor . The old man had some money but he would not spend
them. He would keep them in hiding lest his little wife got them.So
the little wife had to work as a maid servant in the   neighbouring
household to earn money. With that she would pay the doctor and pay
for the medicine and feed her husband. But she did not complain for
that .

                                     One fine morning the old man was
sitting at the window of his house . He saw a courtesan going past his
house .She was in flowing garments. They were made of the costliest
stuff. She was in a palanquin studded with gold  and emerald . The
palanquin was accompanied by a band of beautiful women . Her eyes were
that of a snake that draws its prey simply by gazing at it. She ogled
at the old man from her palanquin . And the old man at once became
restless . Go he must to that woman that very night. His little wife
readily consented to the whims of her old husband.The courtesan
charged hundred silver coins for one hour if any one wanted her
company. The child wife had some savings .Beside she borrowed some
money. She sold away all her ornaments to raise the fees to be given
to the courtesan.

                                    Evening descended upon the
scene .Soon it became night. The road became empty of traffic and
passers by. This was the hour when the old man would visit the
courtesan. But the old man could not walk. The child wife carried him
on her shoulder and softly alighted from the house on the road.
                                    It was a new moon night. There was
a thin grey cloud covering the sky. The stars were ashamed to look
upon the world .They hid themselves behind the cloud. It was pitch
dark all over. There was load shedding .The lamp posts were  blind .
The road was a net work   of puddles. The child wife  stumbled  here
and there.  The old man was hanging from her shoulder. And alas his
legs kicked a traveling mendicant. The travelling mendicant was
sitting at the road side   akimbo on his rugs. He was suffering from
great pain. His head was bleeding .His head was reeling.
                            The wandering mendicant used to move from
one village to another with his begging bowl. He chanted the name  Sri
Hari all the time. His head was so full of Sri Hari that he chanted
the name   inarticulately even when he was plunged in deep sleep. One
day he was walking along the village road chanting the name of Sri
Hari. All of a sudden he saw that he was surrounded by some of the
villagers. They were looking daggers at him . They snatched his
begging bowl. They put their hand into it . And lo! They found there
a gold ear ring that they were searching. For. It was clear that the
mendicant was the thief who had stolen the ear ring of the mistress of
the panchayet pradhan. They exclaimed that such sadhus were rogues in
disguise . The panchayet pradhan was immediately informed .He rushed
to the spot where the mendicant was . They had already started beating
the sadhu. He was dragged to the village court . The honourable court
found the sadhu to be a diehard rogue . But since he had the robes of
a sadhu, death sentence was not pronounced on him . The honourable
judges said that a dagger should be thrust into his skull . So the
sadhu was dragged to a stake. There a dagger was being thurst into his
head . But god knows why. The dagger inflicted an injury on the skull
but it did not enter into the head. The people were struck by this
miracle .
                              In the mean time the superintendent of
police of the district drove to the spot in his car accompanied by a
troupe  of police men in  the  police van . He alighted from the car
and decreed that the sadhu must not be tortured anymore.The real thief
had met the police officer and confessed that it was he who had stolen
the ear ring. How come that the ear ring was found in the begging bowl
of the sadhu? Well when the thief had heard hue and cry and when he
found people searching every passer by he silently slipped the ear
ring into the begging bowl of the sadhu .The sadhu was plunged in
chanting the name of Sri Hari . He did not look at who gave what to
him  . And the sadhu was arrested . Learning that the innocent sadhu
was arrested the thief was all of a sudden over whelmed with
repentance. He rushed to the police and confessed. The superintendant
of police brought the thief with him and ordered that he should be
beheaded presently. He was an offender on two counts. Firstly he had
stolen the ear ring . secondly he shifted the blame on an innocent
sadhu. But the sadhu was on his knees before the police officer and
the people . He said that he was punished only because of his past
activities. When he was a child he had killed an ant pinning it on its
head. Now he reaped his past actions. The thief was merely
instrumental in bringing upon him divine justice. So the thief should
be pardoned . The people begged  apology of the sadhu . They wanted
the sadhu to be treated by the local surgeon but the sadhu refused the
offer . He said that he would bear the punishment given to him by God
with a smile. Saying thus he left the village . Wandering along the
village road finally he reached the very road along which the child
wife was carrying her husband to the courtesan. The old husbands legs
hit him on his head while he was sitting on the road side suffering
from pain . He at once shouted that the old man should die with the
sun rise. It hurt the ears of the child wife . And she retorted that
the sun would never rise again in that case.
                             The dark night continued for hours
together . It continued for 24 hours,48 hours ,72 hours …………… It
seemed that the night had no ending . The day time activities on earth
came to a stand still. For 2 or 3 days some people enjoyed . Because
they did not have to go to office. But the hench men of the political
leaders had their hour.They went looting the houses and raping and
ripping the women . The snakes were out from their hideouts . The
whole atmostphere became loud with the roar of the lion and the tiger
and goons of the different political parties and the groans and the
screams of their victims. Soon life was suspended on earth .
                                      The gods were taken aback they
saw the world on the brink of destruction they did not understand what
be took the world . Why did not the night end on earth . They gathered
before vaijayanti – the palace of Indra the king of the gods . Indra
accompanied by the gods hurried to Brahma to know why such things were
happening on earth . Brahma has four mouths. With one of his mouth he
was drinking tea with another mouth he was eating sweet meat with the
third mouth he was smoking cannabis. With the fourth mouth he told the
gods that he was himself anxious as to the state of affairs on the
earth. He went to lord shiva along with the gods. He found the snakes
who hung from lord shiva’s neck bright with glee. They cried that the
night on earth would never end .The rule of men on earth had ended .
The reign of serpents had begun . Lord Shiva told Brahma and the gods
that they must go to lord Vishnu to know why such things where
happening on earth .And he assured them that Vishnu could prescribe
some remedy to such state of affairs. So the gods went to lord
Vishnu . Shiva also accompanied them to lord Vishnu . Vishnu heard the
gods and smiled. He told them –look a child wife who is 200 percent
devoted to her husband has said that the sun will not rise on earth .
A devoted wife is stronger than  the gods. Even gods can not undo what
a devoted wife wills . The gods exclaimed that the creation would be
destroyed in that case. What could be done to redress the situation ?
Vishnu laughed and said –we must go to Anasuya the wife of saint Atri
for remedy.She can alone save the earth from impending destruction.
                                How come that Anasuya can do what the
gods can not ? Well ,long time back the divine sage Narada visited
lord Vishnu  . In course of his conversation with Visnu he told Lord
Visnu that there was no greater chaste lady than Anasuyaa. Lord Visnu
smiled. Narada had already circulated the news among the gods Shiva
and Brahmaa.He claimed that even Durga and Lakshmi were not as devoted
to their consorts  as Anssuyaa was to her sage husband. This fuelled
the  jealousy of the goddesses Brahmaani and Shivaanee. There was
cordless telephone conversation between Brahma Visnu and Shiva. Next
day early in the morning the three gods Brahma Visnu and Shiva hurried
to the humble hut of the sage Atri. The sage was already away from his
digs . He went to the Himalayas to do penance .He would not return
before six months . Anasuyaa was all alone in her hut, her head full
of her love for her husband.The three gods Brahma Visnu    and Shiva
took the shape of three young men of world winning beauty . Brahmaa
looked like a lion of a young sage, his eyes gleaming  like the
twilight sun , his hair likening the rain clouds, --there was a
pleasant halo around his face.Visnu looked like the moon amidst its
starry fays flooding the world with a w eird light  that was never on
heaven and earth. Lord Shiva looked like a youth decked in vernal
verdure. The young men of the three gods looked at Anasuyaa with
courting eyes. But it did not make any dent on Anasuyas mind. Anosuya
was simply eager to serve the guests. She was heedless to any other
thing. The gods perceived this and they invoked all their divine might
to evoke in Anasuya carnal desires

The three had set out early in the morning.Visnu in his Vaikuntha set
out after the morning tea. Lord Shiva had set out from Kailash just
having a cup of morning milk. Lord Brahma took a glass of lime juice
and telling Brahmaanee that he would come back in a minute.

My God! The three gods did not return home during lunch. They did not
turn up even for tea coffee  garni in the afternoon. Evening
descended  upon the scene.It is not pitch dark in heaven during
night.The sky is there something like in Norway lit with Aurora
Borealis . Be that as it may the goddesses had not  taken any food
during the whole day They were anxious. The goddesses rang each other.
They informed the other gods that Brahma Visnu and  Mahesvara were
missing. The gods were also eagerly waiting for the trinity. Because
they had to take advice from them on very important issues. The demons
were already up in arms. Messengers had come to tell the gods that the
demons were gathering at  the borderland of the heaven. Now at the
instance of Durga and Brahmaanee they also eagerly set out to seek the
three gods. They toiled hard to find them. They surveyed the seven
heavens. They went to Bhulok Bhuvalok swarlok  Mahalok Janalok Tapalok
and Satyalok  .  They surveyed the seven netherworlds.  But nowhere
there was the trace of the seven gods. Finally they came near a brook
on the earth in the forests of Dandakaaranya. The river goddess
babbled and whispered to them. A s  per her instructions they went to
the aashrama of the sage Atri. And lo! they saw three little children
playing in the courtyard of the hut of sage of Atri . One with long
hair was playing with a snake . Another was feeding a bird. The third
child was playing with a volume of the Rigveda.  Anasuya was looking
after them and caressing them with great attention and devotion . The
gods at  once informed Laksmi Sarasvati and Durga and they rushed to
the spot helter-skelter. Now the thirtythree crores of gods and
goddesses were on the knees. They praised Anasuya for her chastity.
She outdid the goddesses in her devotion to her husband. Anasuya
finally released the three gods. They resumed their original
appearance. Brahma now blessed her with his four tongues from four
mouths. Visnu and Shiva also blessed her.They asked Anasuya to pray
for any boon whatever .Anasuya said that may the three gods be her
three children . When Atri came back home after her penance in the
Himalayas he was highly pleased. Brahma was born as the Moon god and
Visnu was born as Dattatreya and Shiva was born as the sage Durvasa in
the arms of Anasuyaa.
So at the instance of Lord Visnu all the gods went to Anasuya. They
told her that  every activity on the earth had come to a standstill.
There was a total bandh on earth. The factories were not working. The
banks were not working. The electric supply was helpless. The peasants
were not going to plough. Snakes and hyenas were at large.Men were
dying everyday of starvation and snakebite.If night continued like
that for two days more the earth would be destroyed. It would grow
cold and  contract into an invisible point. Anasuyas motherly heart
overflowed with the milk of love for all beings both great and small.
She made up her mind to save the creation. She heard  the whole story
of the child wife from the gods. At her instance the gods promised to
keep up the honour of the devoted child wife. They agreed to her
proposal.

Anasuya now went to the doors of the child wife. She was sitting there
with her ailing old husband on her lap. Anasuya introduced herself to
the child wife and praised her for her devotion to her husband. The
two ladies discussed for hours together on the efficacy of being
devoted to ones husband. Anasuya however requested her to ask the Sun
to show up or else the whole creation was going out of joints.The
child wife saw eye to eye with her.But she said that she would not let
her husband die. With sun rise he would die. Anasuya implored her to
let the Sun rise.True that her husband would die presently. Because
the curse of a saint must not go in vain. But Anasuya assured her that
as soon her husband dies she would pray to gods and the gods would
call him back to life.Anasuya told the child wife that the latter
could trust her hundred percent. The child wife did what Anasuya asked
her to do . The Sun showed up in the eastern horizon. The whole world
including the seas and the skies the lions and the tigers crows and
the sparrows burst into joyful laughter. It sounded like the music of
the spheres to gods in heaven. But it sounded like wardrums to the
demons who were clandestinely gathering at the borders of heaven. It
struck terror into their hearts. At once however the the old man of
the child wife fell dead. She screamed in great agony. Anasuya held
her by her hand like a mother and chanted prayers. In no time
thousands of  gods appeared in the skies. They asked the dead old man
to get up from sleep.  Hurrah !The dead old man stood up as it were
from a siesta. And lo !He was no longer old. He stood up a fullblooded
youth. The beauty that is Apollo and the beauty that is Lord Buddha
mingled in him. The child wife and her young husband fell at the feet
of Anasuya. They worshipped the gods. They went to the saint whom they
had hurt.The chaste  wife got her husband and it was all right with
the world 

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