A Vietnamese Poem The Universe and I explicated by Ramesh Mukhopadhyaya

 A Vietnamese Poem  The Universe and I  written by Poet Ngo Tu Lap and translated into English by Martha Collins and Tu Lap himself explicated by Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya

The  Poem

THE UNIVERSE AND I

Translated from the Vietnamese by Martha Collins and Ngo Tu Lap

The universe and I

Two illusory lands-

Were both born in 1962?

Perhaps the past and future have joined together

Perhaps I’m not even a speck of dust

But sometimes I believe the lies

Of a scar left by the war

Of noble and base desires

Of my hair falling like trees in a rotten forest

Every instant brings proof of sand and dust-

In silent dreams, I start to fly

With the universe, through that forest

The title of the poem- The Universe and I- sets forth a dichotomy. Apparently, the readers might infer from the surface of the poem that the poem should dwell on the battle between the poets self and the world. But the first three lines of the poem seem to say no to our speculation. Commonly we are made to believe that the universe has been there since time immemorial and it will continue to exist through all futurity, let men come and go. But the first stanza of the poem puts forward a different cosmology and creation myth. The poet says that he and the universe were born at the same time. They were born together in 1962. This is indeed true. If men were not there, how could there be the world?  The universe is born only when an individual is born. And surely, there are as many universes as there are human beings. Apparently this is extreme subjectivism. May be it might allude to Berkley, the English philosopher and yet this is an undeniable truth which puts forward the theory of reception aesthetics. Where is the text? Where is the poem- The Universe and I? In fact there are as many interpretations of the poem as there are readers. And one wonders if there could be myriads of interpretations of a text . Is the decoding of the text at all possible? And that which does not make sense to human perception does not exist. Does the text at all exist? Does the universe at all exist? But if the text were not there how could there be the reader. So ours is an existence which baffles interpretation. And hence the poem states – the universe and I two illusory lands. Of course, the I stands for the mind or the self and the universe stands for the matter or the non self. In fact one wonders whether the mind and the matter exist at all. Because it is the mind that testifies matter and it is matter or body that stands witness to mind. But is there any third person who stands witness to either mind or matter or both? None. So, you never know whether the mind or matter exist at all; hence the note of interrogation at the end of the first stanza. The mention of the particular time when the speaker and the universe were born together has added a  pointedness to the philosophical reflection. This reminds us of the pointedness of description in Pre-Raphaelite art. The relation between the universe and the I is dubious.Are they two discrete units? Or else are they two and yet one? This reminds an Indian reader of Dvaitaadvaitavaad . While a painting manifests itself in space, any verbal composition progresses through time. That is why every word, every sentence could suggest a meaning which might be cancelled or modified by the words that follow the word or the sentence. This is why there is always suspense and a drama inherent in any piece of poetry made with words.

The second stanza of the poem seems to support our speculation. Just as the universe and the I meet when a child is born, similarly time past and time future are joined together when a child is born. The readers are as it were face to face with a confluence. It is said that the place where two rivers meet generates immense energy and the readers are impelled here to encounter the generation of immense energy. The poet’s perspective shifts suddenly. He looks upon the multiverse as given and deems himself to be a part of the boundless multiverse.  And in this context, he is  infinitesimally small and the multi verse is infinitesimally big and the poet exclaims that he is not even a speck of dust and even smaller than dust in comparison with the vastness of the universe. The poet juxtaposes the vision of the infinitude with the contingent. True that in the context of the vastness of the universe no event however significant to man is of any importance . Even the birth of a star and the death of a star are of no consequence in the context of the vastness of the multiverse. But we are humans . We live in the contingent. We are made to believe in the lies . We cannot deny or forget the aftermath of wars. The poet cannot deny the scar left by the war. And when such cataclysms take place in the world of man, man cannot but develop a sense of morality whereby the base could be distinguished from the noble. On another level, man has to be reconciled with his fate . He becomes a stoic. The poet believes that his hair falls like trees in a rotten forest. Just as the hair  falls and the body of man changes every minute every second , similarly nothing is permanent in the world . The world that we experience also changes every second .The flower that blooms in the morning is doomed to wither away in the evening. When it gets rotten, it falls into the place where dead things gather subject to putrefaction. Thus this is a rotten world where we fly along with the universe that was born with us. The poem is charged with a cynicism which is time and again.

A Vietnamese Poem A Casual Thought about Grass Explicated by Ramesh Mukhopadhyaya

Poet Truong Nam Huong

Translator into English Thieu Khanh

Explicated by Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya

A casual thought about grass

People say loving each  and kiss each

other on grass

People bid farewell and show each other the

Crevasse

The grass  listens and stays naturally green

People dig grass up

And cultivate it again

With all pessimism and

All their hope then

Grass stands thempains

And stays naturally green

History has seen declined and

Prosperous dynasties

Buried under grass

many kings as well as crazies

Fair and lovely grass stays naturally green

Above all sufferings;

Above all great cheer

Grass is green like a delight and soft like a

tear

Self- convinced of no account, grass stays naturally green

The poem opens with an idyllic environment. There the people recline on grass and speak of love. They kiss each other on grass. This is an imagery that catches the eye. People bid farewell to each other and show each other the gaps between the grasses or else the fissures on the soil. The earth is indeed the bed or the sofa where they could make love to each other but this is not all. The poet feels that the grass listens to our dialogues of love and stays naturally green.  The legitimation is perhaps significant , The grass might stand for Nature itself. If we men had loved each other really , if there were no fight among nations, nature would remain unperturbed and green because nature loves to hear men who love each other. But this is a world where men fight their fellowmen and a country attacks another country goaded by greed. So nature is losing its green. Every man stands alone as it were shunned by his neighbours in a defoliated forest. It was cultivation or agriculture that started polluting nature. The poet observes that the people dig grass up and c ultivate it again. People dig grass to produce agricultural crops or to retrieve mineral wealth or else people destroys grass to go ahead with urbanization. That is how the civilization wounds and injures Nature. But the poet observes that the grass or Nature may pass through a dejected mental state. Maybe nature might look forward to a resurrection as well. Yet sometimes people cultivate the grass and nature again. But there is a difference between the woodland and the park of Ebenezer Howard. In the woods, nature remains untrammeled. In the parks, the Nature we encounter is scissored Nature. Be that as it may, Nature or grass stands the pains and stays naturally green. The poet observes that history has seen rise and fall of dynasties and empires. The mightiest monarchs could not hold on more than a day. However much great they were, they had to embrace the earth as their graves . That was their  be all and end all. The sceptre and crown must tumble with scythe and spade and find rest below the grasses. Man seeks to control Nature and reign over Nature. But it is a pity he is himself a part of Nature and despite his empty vaunts dust he is and to dust he returns. Crazies are now on the saddle. Globalization is the fad of  the day. They are out to destroy Nature but the poet prophesies that they must also bite the grass when the inevitable hour comes. Nature however has no word against man. Fair and loving grass stays naturally green. The grass is the type of ideal man. The grass is above all sufferings and all great cheer .That is the grass is the ideal man who takes joys and sorrows weal and woe with equanimity of mind. The poet says that the grass is green like a delight and soft like  a tear. This is an imagery which is time and again. Green here stands for delight and tear here stands for softness. With the poet, softness alone endures, love alone endures. Jesus , God the Son prophesied that the world will be ruled by the meek and the humble in times to come. Despite the untold sufferings, why should the grass remain ever delighted? Why should Nature remain ever delighted? Well, neither the grass nor the Nature as a whole has any object in view. In other words, unlike men they do not have any desire. That is why they are neither overtaken by sorrow because of the unfulfillment of any desire. They are not overwhelmed by joys because of attainment of desires. It is they who remain ever in delight. Here is a legitimation . Happiness does not consist of victories or attainment in the contingent. True delight is found through the joy of living only. Those who live just for the sake of living stay naturally green. On another level, the grass could stand for the common run of men. Let kings and emperors come and go., Let empires appear and disappear, but the common run of men will go on forever. But if they  had learned the art of living from Nature, from the soft grass, from the humble grass,  they could remain ever in love and peace. The grass lives simply impelled by the delight in living. Does not the grass stand for the artist who professes art for art sake? One wonders whether the present poem contradicts this theory or not. Because the poem in our final judgment is didactic. This is a paradox. Paradox is indeed the stuff with which good pieces of literature are composed.   The poem is like a dewdrop  deposited at dawn dazzling like diamond which reflects the way of the world and which illuminates the way out from the mesh of worldly joys and sorrows.

A Vietnamese Poem --Child of the Earth explicatedVietnamese Poetry Child of the Earth-- A poem composed by the Cham Poet Inrasara and translated into English by A. G. Sachner explicated by Dr Ramesh Mukhopadhyaya The text of the poem in English translation I am A child of the wind wandering through the fields of narrow Central Region a child of the fiery Sun four seasons of dry cold white sands a child of the open sea with roaring storms and of the pale green sleepless eyes of the Cham temple Mother feeds me with the milk of sad folk songs father feeds me with the sinewy arms of Glang Anak grandpa feeds me with the foggy moon of legends the palei feeds me with the shadows of kites the souls of cricket s the sounds of buffalo bells Growing up I confronted the war I clashed with food and clothing existentialism and phenomenology I floundered in the flow of language gone astray then was submerged in the valley of your love I dropped the world and lost my self then I stretched myself from the pit of the past like a wounded person searching for an exit from the ruins of a city I sought myself finding the sunlight of native country Then I forced my head up and crawled uyt then I stretched myself from the pit of the past like a wounded person searching for an exit from the ruins of a city I sought my self Finding the sunlight of native country Inside me green again---even though the forest has burned inside me green again—even though the river has died the sand suddenly parched---the lullaby suddenly sad you are suddenly graceful—the temple suddenly deserted Mothers distant voice soothes into an everlasting slumber Analysis This is an autobiographical poem. The speaker here speaks in the first person. The speaker introduces himself as a child of the wind wandering through the fields of the narrow central region, a child of the fiery sun, four seasons of dry cold white sands, a child of the open sea filled with roaring storms and of the pale green sleepless eyes of the Cham temple. That is the first stanza of the poem almost ad verbatim. The wind wandering through the fields of the narrow region gives us a sense of touch. The fiery sun and the four seasons of dry cold white sands also give us the sense of touch. Our feet feel the cold sands. Our eyes see the white sands. Our skin feels the hot sun. Our eyes see the hot sun. We can hear the roaring storms and descry the seas tossed by it. Thus the first four lines of the poem engross our eyes ears and our sense of touch. They speak of a landscape where the wings are as it were howling at all hours . Restlessness rules all over. The restless landscape is juxtaposed with the sleepless eyes of the Cham temple. That is, the Cham temple stands there tranquil looking on the restlessness of nature. While the seas are ever restless the Cham temple is ever in its tranquility. Does not the Cham temple symbolize a mind ever tranquil and perennial observing the phenomenal world where restlessness is the rule? The Cham temple looks upon the world with sleepless eyes. But on another level does not the poet say that he is the child of wind fire water and the earth the four elements that constitute the world? His mind is however one with the primordial mind that looks upon the restless world. On another level the Cham people were b rave sea voyagers who dared the wild seas in ancient times. It were they who founded the grand kingdom of Champa . Does not the speaker hark back to his ancient past? he remembers that he is the child of maritime adventurers in his unconscious mind. The second stanza of the poem wistfully looks back to the indeterminate past. How is a child socialized? The speaker says that as a child he was fed with the milk of the sad folk songs. When a child he heard from his father the heroic poem Glang Anak his grandfather fed him with the foggy moon of legends. In fact a child is not brought up with nutritious food alone. And it is the stories that a child voraciously eats and the speaker tells us how he was nurtured by the stories. Every rift of the poem is loaded with rich ore. Such phrases as – the sinewy arms of Glang Anak, the foggy moon of legends are time and again .They present before us the picture of a child surrounded by grandpa and mother. Lights from the father’s eyes fall on him. But this is a picture of a family, of a people who are wont to cast a longing lingering look back to their glorious past. Right now they are sans the glory which they were wont to enjoy earlier. It speaks of a people with lost glory and lasting pain. It was in a village that the speaker spent his childhood. What was the village like? Well the speaker says that the village fed him with the shadow of kites, souls of crickets and the sounds of buffalo bells. Such portrayals of a village far from the madding crowds in noble strife is archetypal .To any Indian reader this portrayal of a Cham village reminds of the countless villages of India itself. India by the by is still a network of villages even in the twenty first century. But this is not all. The shadow of kites the souls of cricket the sounds of buffalo bells seem to correspond to the sad folk song. arms of Glang Anak and the foggy moon of legends. In the moonlight we could descry everything but in the foggy moon whatever we see is hazy bright. Things no longer remain discrete there. The village in the shadow of the kites is as distant and as wistful as the sad folk songs that tell us of homely joys and sorrows or else that alludes to some battle lost and won. The idyllic imagery of childhood is all of a sudden shattered with his growing up. In his adolescence the speaker confronted the world and the war.. Those who know Vietnam of today know full well how the country was confronted with war. It was like the sea ravaged by the storm. And every inhabitant of the country had to face the ravages of war .With the speaker the war was without and the war was within. On the physical level, the speaker strived for food and clothing. On the mental level, he had to encounter clashing philosophies such as existentialism of Sartre and Kierkegaard and phenomenology of Husserl. But they be- speak of language game. The speaker was carried off by the flows of language and lost his stay .Does not the speaker thereby suggest the helplessness of the Cham people who have lost their ancient glory and state. But finally the speaker was plunged into the valley of love. Let the philosophers continue their dispute which has no ending love is the only philosophy and a feeling that wields the opposites. But nay. Plunged in love the speaker dropped the world and lost his self. Here is as it were a sudden reversal of events.We expected that the speaker would find a stay in love. But the opposite took place. The speaker lost the rhythm of the country dance and the folk songs. His heart was blinded. He was like a person shunned falling into middle of a defoliated forest. This is a wonderful pen picture. We can visualize a young man forlorn plunged in- to the middle of a forest that had shed its leaves. This is the climax of a narrative. In the fifth stanza the speaker says that flung into the defoliated forest he forced his head up and crawled out. This puts in our mind the portrait of a soldier crawling out of forest. This was on the physical plane. On the mental plane, the poet stretched himself from the pit of the past. The speaker / the poet likened the wounded person , searching for an exit from the ruins of a city. This imagery applies to the Cham people also who were in search of an identity. The imagery speaks of Vietnam shaking off the hang over of war. The speaker rediscovered himself, or retrieved his lost self finding the sunlight of the native country. Patriotism and love for one’s people and one’s motherland constitute one’s self. Thus here is a story of paradise lost and paradise regained. Now that the speaker has found his own self once again, he is green. A fresh zest for life charges him . The speaker is green again even though the forest is burnt. Inside him there is a flow even though the river has died. This imagery might speak of the war ravaged Vietnam where forests and rivers became preys to napalm bombs. Or else, this is the portrait of the world today where urbanization robs the earth of its forests and where dammed rivers have lost their flow. But the speaker has verdure aglow within . Rivers of love flow in his heart unimpeded. May the tribe of such speakers multiply. The externalization of their inner world might bring back the lost Eden upon earth. The speaker becomes nostalgic. The lullaby becomes suddenly sad . The temple suddenly deserted. The people of Vietnam particularly the Cham people are fond of ancestor worship. The poem ends with- Mothers distant voice soothes into an everlasting slumber. The poem seems to counterpoise Coleridge’s Kubla Khan. In Coleridge, Kubla Khan heard the voice of ancestors prophesying war. Here the distant voice of the mother soothes the speaker into an everlasting slumber. All passions spent there is a calm of the mind. The poem is archetypal in so far as it describes the course of the life of every man in four stages – childhood adolescence youth and old age

Vietnamese  Poetry     Child of the Earth--  A poem composed by the Cham Poet Inrasara and translated into English by A. G. Sachner  explicated by Dr Ramesh  Mukhopadhyaya

The  text of the poem in English translation

I  am

A child of the wind wandering through the fields of narrow Central Region

a child of the fiery Sun  four seasons of dry cold white sands

a   child of the open sea with roaring storms

and  of the pale green sleepless eyes of the Cham temple

Mother feeds me with the milk of sad folk songs

father   feeds me  with the sinewy arms of Glang  Anak

grandpa  feeds me with the foggy moon of legends

the  palei feeds me with the shadows of kites the souls of cricket s the sounds of buffalo bells

Growing up I  confronted  the war

I clashed with food and clothing existentialism and phenomenology

I   floundered in the flow of language gone astray

then was submerged in the valley of your love

I dropped the world and lost my self

then  I  stretched myself  from the pit of the past

like a wounded person searching for an exit from the ruins of a city

I sought myself

 finding   the sunlight of native country

Then I forced my head up and crawled uyt

then  I  stretched myself from the pit of the past

like a wounded person searching for an exit from the ruins of a city

I sought my self

Finding the sunlight of native country

Inside me green again---even though the forest has burned

 inside me  green again—even though the river has died

the sand suddenly parched---the lullaby suddenly sad

you  are suddenly graceful—the temple suddenly deserted

Mothers distant voice soothes into an everlasting slumber

Analysis

This is an autobiographical poem. The speaker here speaks in the first person. The speaker introduces himself as a child of the wind wandering through the fields of the narrow central region, a child of the fiery sun, four seasons of dry cold white sands, a child of the open sea filled with roaring storms and of the pale green sleepless eyes of the Cham temple. That is the first stanza of the poem almost ad verbatim. The wind wandering through the fields of the narrow region gives us a sense of touch. The fiery sun and the four seasons of dry cold white sands also give us the sense of touch. Our feet feel the cold sands. Our eyes see the white sands. Our skin feels the hot sun. Our eyes see the hot sun. We can hear the roaring storms and descry the seas tossed by it. Thus the first four lines of the poem engross our eyes ears and our sense of touch. They speak of a landscape where the wings are as it were howling at all  hours . Restlessness rules all over. The restless landscape is juxtaposed with the sleepless eyes of the Cham temple. That is, the Cham temple stands there tranquil looking on the restlessness of nature. While the seas are ever restless the Cham temple is ever in its tranquility. Does not the Cham temple symbolize a mind ever tranquil and perennial observing the phenomenal world where restlessness is the rule?  The Cham temple looks upon the world with sleepless eyes. But on another level does not the poet say that he is the child of wind fire water and the earth the four elements that constitute the world? His mind is however one with the primordial mind that looks upon the restless world. On another level the Cham people were   b rave sea voyagers who dared the wild seas in ancient times. It were they who founded the grand kingdom of Champa . Does not the speaker hark back to his ancient past? he remembers that he is the child of maritime adventurers in his unconscious mind.

The second stanza of the poem wistfully looks back to the indeterminate past. How is a child socialized? The speaker says that as a child he was fed with the milk of the sad folk songs. When a child he heard from his father the heroic poem Glang Anak his grandfather fed him with the foggy moon of legends. In fact a child is not brought up with nutritious food alone. And it is the stories that a child voraciously eats and the speaker tells us how he was nurtured by the stories. Every rift of the poem is loaded with rich ore. Such phrases as – the sinewy arms of Glang Anak, the foggy moon of legends are time and again .They present before us the picture of a child surrounded by grandpa and mother. Lights from the father’s eyes fall on him. But this is a picture of a family, of a people who are wont to cast a longing lingering look back to their glorious past. Right now they are sans the glory which they were wont to enjoy earlier. It speaks of a people with lost glory and lasting pain. It was in a village that the speaker spent his childhood. What was the village like? Well the speaker says that the village fed him with the shadow of kites, souls of crickets and the sounds of buffalo bells. Such portrayals of a village far from the madding crowds in noble strife is archetypal .To any Indian reader this portrayal of a Cham village reminds of the countless villages of India itself. India by the by is still a network of villages even in the twenty first century. But this is not all. The shadow of kites the souls of cricket the sounds of buffalo bells seem to correspond to the sad folk song. arms of Glang Anak and the foggy moon of legends. In the moonlight we could descry everything but in the foggy moon whatever we see is hazy bright. Things no longer remain discrete there. The village in the shadow of the kites is as distant and as wistful as the sad folk songs that tell us of homely joys and sorrows or else that alludes to some battle lost and won.

The idyllic imagery of childhood is all of a sudden shattered with his growing up. In his adolescence the speaker confronted the world and the war.. Those who know Vietnam of today know full well how the country was confronted with war. It was like the sea ravaged by the storm. And every inhabitant of the country had to face the ravages of war .With the speaker the war was without and the war was within. On the physical level, the speaker strived for food and clothing. On the mental level, he had to encounter clashing philosophies such as existentialism of Sartre and Kierkegaard and phenomenology of Husserl. But they be- speak of language game. The speaker was carried off by the flows of language and lost his stay .Does not the speaker thereby suggest the helplessness of the Cham people who have lost their ancient glory and state. But finally the speaker was plunged into the valley of love. Let the philosophers continue their dispute which has no ending love is the only philosophy and a feeling that wields the opposites.

But nay. Plunged in love the speaker dropped the world and lost his self. Here is as it were a sudden reversal of events.We expected that the speaker would find a stay in love. But the opposite took place. The speaker lost the rhythm of the country dance and the folk songs. His heart was blinded. He was like a person shunned falling into middle of a defoliated forest.  This is a wonderful pen picture. We can visualize a young man forlorn plunged in- to the middle of a forest that had shed its leaves. This is the climax of a narrative.

In the fifth stanza the speaker says that flung into the defoliated forest he forced his head up and crawled out. This puts in our mind the portrait of a soldier crawling out of forest. This was on the physical plane. On the mental plane, the poet stretched  himself from the pit of the past. The speaker / the poet likened the wounded person , searching for an exit from the ruins of a city. This imagery applies to the Cham people also who were in search of an identity. The imagery speaks of Vietnam shaking off the hang over of war. The speaker rediscovered himself, or retrieved his lost self finding the sunlight of the native country. Patriotism and love for one’s people and one’s motherland constitute one’s self.

Thus here is a story of paradise lost and paradise regained. Now that the speaker has found his own self once again, he is green. A fresh zest for life charges him . The speaker is green again even though the forest is burnt. Inside him there is a flow even though the river has died. This imagery might speak of the war ravaged Vietnam where forests and rivers became preys to napalm bombs. Or else, this is the portrait of the world today where urbanization robs the earth of its forests and where dammed rivers have lost their flow. But the speaker has verdure aglow within . Rivers of love flow in his heart unimpeded. May the tribe of such speakers multiply. The externalization of their inner world might bring back the lost Eden upon earth. The speaker becomes nostalgic. The lullaby becomes suddenly sad . The temple suddenly deserted.

The people of Vietnam particularly the Cham people are fond of ancestor worship. The poem ends with- Mothers distant voice soothes into an everlasting slumber. The poem seems to counterpoise Coleridge’s Kubla Khan. In Coleridge, Kubla Khan heard the voice of  ancestors prophesying  war. Here the distant voice of the mother soothes the speaker into an everlasting slumber. All passions spent there is a calm of the mind.

The poem is archetypal in so far as  it describes the course of the life of every man in four stages – childhood adolescence youth and old age

A Mongolian Poem--Sun and Moon explicated

Monglian Poetry-- An English translation of a  poem in Mongolian  composed by Danzaravjaa a Monglian  poet explicated

By Dr Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya

The Poem 

                                              Sun and Moon

Sun and Moon

 illuminate four continents

Religion and state

Comfort the mass of people

Monks and officials

Refer to the good and bad deeds

Benevolence and rage

Bring elation and difficulty

Meditators rejoice

In wisdom and method

Bitterness and passion

Obscure people

Good  and bad nehaviour

Can decide your fate

Gullibility and vigilance

Can test your mettle

Mind can diversify

Knowledge and ignorance

Efficiency can determine

Benefit or harm

Benefaction is dependant

Upon maximum and minimum

Cause breeds

Familiarity and contempt

Bias and favour can

Distinguish you and me

This and the next life

Are the results of action

Height and depths

Are externals

Truth and falsity are

Internal evidences

At a long journey

Although I did not feel bored

And have written

This  as  my pleasure

Analysis

Sun and Moon are the two lights that illuminate the four continents. While  the Sun could  stand for the light without the Moon could stand for the inner light.  Indeed  whatever we perceive in the world  is perceived on the physical as well as on the mental level. Sun and Moon illuminate the four continents or the world. Four continents constitute the world, Four stands for endurance and stability, The world that is illuminated by the Sun and Moon is a stable and enduring one. Just as the Sun and Moon illuminate the world so do religion and state comfort the masses of people. With the poet religion is as important as the state and  vice versa. In other words the priests are as important as the government to run  the society. While the government looks after the legal aspect of  the society the  priests  take care of the moral aspect of the society..Monks and officials   judge an individual’s activities as good or bad. Consequently the individuals are praised or punished. Benevolence and rage characterize the   behavior of the rulers be they monks or officials. Those who are however not overpowered by the hurly burly of the mundane world and who are wont to reflect on the reality behind the show of things are least perturbed by the rewards and punishments given to them by the mundane world. These meditators rejoice in wisdom and method. In other words those who meditate  do not meditate to get at something. They meditate because they enjoy meditation . And of course meditation  results in kindling the inner light –the Moon. But those who are swayed by the outer world are overpowered by bitterness and passion. There is irony here. Benevolence and anger on the part of the rulers are the counterparts of bitterness and passion on the part of the ruled. And may be the rulers the monks and the officials are made of the same stuff as the common run of men. The poet plunged in meditation however observes that sila is of prime importance. Good or bad behavior decides ones fortunes. Gullibility or vigilance can test ones mettle. This applies to everyone-- the monks the officials and every man whoever..The rulers and monks are not above law. The  light without can distinguish the rulers from the ruled. It is concerned with externals. The inner light or the light of the mind helps us to distinguish the true from the false.. Besides the mind can  diversify or create varieties of  knowledge  as well as ignorance.  If knowledge implies efficiency then efficiency can  determine or cause both benefit and harm .Thus efficiency is not a value  .An efficient scientist  can invent devices to kill people as well’ Good deeds or benefaction is dependent upon maximum or minimum In other words good deeds are dependent upon the greatest extent or intensity possible or the least or smallest amount required. In fact good deeds are good deeds.  One cannot do enough good deeds. Once again one cannot perform some good deeds/The word dependent in the line- benefaction is dependent--  might allude to the theory of Dependant Origination Cause breeds familiarity and contempt. Nothing is uncaused whatever Familiarity with certain things  and contempt for some other things are there only because of earlier actions. Apparently though familiarity and contempt correspond to bias and favour. Every human being has bias and favour that determines his relation ship with other people. And the biases and favours  of one person is different from  those of another. It is these biases and  favours  that  distinguish one person from another. And these differences are due to the actions of the person in his or her earlier births. Also whatever favour one gets in this birth has been the consequence of ones actions in earlier lives The poet believes in rebirths.. Once one understands how rebirths take place one realizes that there is no truth in the world of appearance.. Height and depth are externals .Truth and falsity are not there in the world of appearance or in the outer world.. They are internal evidences of the reality. These evidences are revealed in the inner light.. These are the reflections of the poet   in the context of the poets odysseus through births and deaths. The journey has been already a long one. But the poet says that he has not been bored. He enjoys the journey. He meditates for the sake of meditations sake and he enjoys the method involved in meditation . He enjoys the journey itself and he is in no hurry to reach the destination if any. This is why the poet is a lover of the world of eye and ear. He knows the limitations of worldly life. But he is in no hurry to get rid of it.  Rather he is glad to dwell on  the lessons that he learnt in course of his journey through births and deaths    Here is a different kind of poet a philosopher poet and his poem is a writerly text that compels the readers to meditate  on the text

Vietnamese Poetry Apoem by Mai Van Phan explicated by Dr Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya

A poem by the Vietnamese poet Mai Van Phan

Spring soaked in a soil

Digging the soil down

Found the whole old year round

The poem opens with  the name of a season. It is Spring.It begins with the Tet Festival. Spring thereby signifies the advent of the New Year. It is during the spring that plants grow and flowers burst forth. The poet speaks of spring soaked in a soil. Soil is the top layer of the surface land.Even during the Tet festival the poet does not speak of the soil or the whole earth  soaked in spring.He speaks of a soil soaked in Spring.That shows that it is not  a Nature poem. It speaks of human nature. The soil is here a metaphor for the conscious mind –the top layer of  a particular human mind.The word soaked is significant.When  it is said that the soil or top layer of the mind is soaked in Spring  Spring does not stand for a season in the world without.Spring stands for a frame of mind . Spring might make itself felt in the mind no matter whether there is a corresponding spring in the world without,Spring however stands for a new birth and creativity . It is a power that cannot be descried but felt. When the mind is soaked in spring the poet feels that there is the digging of soil down . In other words when there is the spring in any mind whatever the mind becomes introvert. Instead of exploring the world without the mind seeks to delve into the self..It creates a suspense in the mind of the reader. One is apt to ask what does the poet find delving deep into his own being.The poet says that the whole old year round is found as a result of the excavation within. The legitimation of the poem is clear.Any moment of ecstasy or joy  is not an accident and it does not mean forgetfulness of the joys and sorrows of the past. Rather the spring  state of mind is the consummation of the joys and sorrows  experienced earlier. When Lord Buddha attained enlightenment the whole gamut of his past lives came back to him in a flash.Unless we realize that all the earlier seasons work towards the bringing about spring we do not understand the true nature of spring/ Therefore we must not be swayed by the ecstasy of spring.We must remember that if Autumn were not there there  would not be any spring, Hence man should brave the different seasons of life. however hard they might be, to attain spring or enlightenment or creative moments There is an aesthetics embedded here

A Vietnamese Poetry in English Translation Explicated - Mother

MOTHER
Explicated by Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyay


Mum you were in brown during your life

For I could wear a lot of colourful dresses

When I grew up my dad died

Only you took care of us

Your hands were wrinkled

While your children were growing up

Now all of us have partners

Bit you are still alone

Your smile is always kind and gentle

So I think that I am still a little girl in front of you


You are like the deep earth

Which nourishes  flowers and rice for thousand years in silence

This is a poem where a child is the speaker and her mother is the addressee. The child recollects how her father died early and it was the mother who brought up the child. It was the mother who had shouldered all the responsibilities of bringing up her children on her own. She was in brown all along her life. She did not have the time and opportunity for pursuing her desires if any. On the other hand the child or the speaker of the poem could wear a lot of colourful dresses when her mother took care of her. That is  the mother saw to that her children could pursue their fancies under her guardianship. Now that the children are grown up they have found their life partners. The mother need not look after them any more. The child poet feels that the mother is now alone. The child also feels the pangs of separation from her mother. That is why she thinks that her mother is alone. But in her imagination she is still the little girl that she was in front of her mother. And her mother is always kind and gentle. The poem is clinched up with the two lines:

You are like the deep earth

Which nourishes flowers and rice for thousands of years, in silence.

Thus the poem lauds motherhood. The mother has been compared with the deep earth which nourishes flower and rice for thousands of years in silence. She never boasts of her self sacrifice. While flowers stand for the beautiful things in life rice stands for nourishment of the body. The mother also nourishes both body and mind  of a child.

 Let hedonism say what it can, here in this poem the role of a mother has been underlined as the finest manifestation of womanhood. The mother becomes great and noble through her silent sacrifice of the self for the joys and well-being of her child. The child sees the primordial mother in the figure of her own mother. Thus this is a poem holding out the mother cult. The poem is at the same time a hymn to the Earth. Both our mother and our mother earth are in brown and both of them must be looked after and revered. Indeed our dear earth is the only spacecraft in which we men and women can live and multiply. And even in our old age the mother is our solace . We imagine that we are still little children in front of our mother.       

        

A Vietnamese Poetry in English Translation Explicated - Love

Love

By Phan Thi Thanh Nhan

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

You have another girlfriend

She is more beautiful and younger than me

She is also coddled and fondled

Like you used to treat me as ever


I could not understand although thinking for a long time

My unreasonable faithfulness

Why I cannot love anyone not you


But you spit on our past

And you forgot all of our bitterness and miserableness

Why I am still thinking about our old days

And think that you never change


I am still waiting for you

And thinking that you cannot forget me

Although she is more beautiful and younger than me

You released me but still there a new wound

Change is the category of life. Impermanence is the only truth lurking behind the show of things. And yet emotions such as love can not admit of the reality that it is change which characterizes the way of the world. The poem ‘Love’ by Phan Thi Thanh Nhan is a sweet ditty where a deserted lover casts a longing lingering look into her past. She still thinks about her past when she was cuddled and fondled by her sweetheart. She thinks that her sweet heart has not changed even today despite the fact that her sweetheart at this moment is engaged with a girl who is more beautiful and younger than her. The deserted lover says that she is still waiting for her beloved to turn up. True that she has been deserted by her sweetheart but the wounds of love still linger at her heart and the deserted lover thinks that her beloved one has also love for her at his heart even today despite the fact that he coddles and fondles a girl younger and more beautiful than her. The speaker, that is, the deserted lover tries to understand why she is still fond of the man who deserted her. It seems to her that there is an unreasonable faithfulness in her. That is why she cannot love anyone else than the person whom she loved once and whom she lost in course of time. Thus the poem enshrines constancy of love. Love does not admit of any change. The emotion of love baffles explanation.