K. V. Dominic's Write My Son, Write--Text and Interpretation E-Book

Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya

• Herausgeber: Modern History Press
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Seitenzahl: 68

Beschreibung

"Write My Son, Write" is K. V. Dominic's longest poem, in 21 sections taken from his collection of poems entitled Write Son, Write. Dominic unabashedly tackles every-day issues of India such as the social injustice of poverty, man's crass exploitation of natural resources that ought to belong to everyone, terrorism, and the eternal beauty of the natural world. This poem is the manifesto of Dominic's views and philosophies.
About this work, K.V. Dominic writes, "People today are crazy after materialism, and divinity in them is being lost to such an extent that they give no importance to principles, values, family and social relations, cohabitance with human beings and other beings. Instead they are trying their maximum to exploit their fellow beings, other beings and the planet itself. If it goes like this, the total destruction is not far away. It is the duty of the religious leaders, political leaders and the intelli-gentsia to inject the lost values to the masses and thus preserve this planet and the inhabitants from the imminent devastation. Instead, majority of these leaders become mafias and inject communal and corruptive venom to the minds of the masses. Corruption has become the hallmark of these leaders and influenced by them the masses also deviate from the right track to the evil track. And who will save this society? Writers, particularly poets who are like prophets."
Dr. Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya's commentary provides the most complete critical analysis of the poem, section-by-section and line-by-line. Born in 1947 Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya M A (Triple) MPhil, PhD is a retired college teacher now residing at Howrah, West Bengal, India,. A Bilingual writer (English and Bengali), he has been writing on different subjects for the last thirty years. He seeks to retrieve the wealth of poetry when it is a revelation. Dr. Mukhopadhyaya regards K. V. Dominic as a poet of a seer.
From the World Voices Series
Modern History Press

Leseprobe

K. V. Dominic’s

Write My Son, Write--

Text and Interpretation:

An Exercise in Close Reading

Dr. Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya

From the World Voices Sereis

Modern History Press

Ann Arbor * London * Sydney

K. V. Dominic’s Write My Son, Write-- Text and Interpretation:

An Exercise in Close Reading

Copyright (c) 2016 by Dr. Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya

All Rights Reserved.

Reprinted with permission from International Journal on Multicultural Literature (June 2016)

978-1-61599-305-5 eBook (PDF, ePub, Kindle)

From the World Voices Series

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Contents

Synopsis

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Part Six

Part Seven

Part Eight

Part Nine

Part Ten

Part Eleven

Part Twelve

Part Thirteen

Part Fourteen

Part Fifteen

Part Sixteen

Part Seventeen

Part Eighteen

Part Nineteen

Part Twenty

Part Twenty One

About K.V. Dominic

About the Commentator

About the Cover

K. V. Dominic’s Write My Son, Write-- Text and Interpretation:

An Exercise in Close Reading

by Dr. Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya

Synopsis

Write My Son, Write is K. V. Dominic’s longest poem, in 21 sections taken from his collection of poems entitled Write Son, Write, published by Gnosis, New Delhi in 2011. It is the manifesto of Dominic’s views and philosophies. Dr. Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya’s critical analysis of the poem, section by section

The very title of the book of poems, Write Son Write, suggests that the poet is proud to introduce himself as the son of his parents. He writes at the command of his father figure or mother figure. This naturally puts forward certain values, such as family, and the command of the head of the family. Besides, the family should continue. The human race should continue. On another level, the word “write” puns with “right.” Hence, we may argue that a father figure acknowledges the reflections of the poet, who is proud to introduce himself as the right or correct son of the father figure. In addition, the word “right” might function as a verb. In that case the father figure seems to tell the son poet that he should right wrongs. The title itself thus raises a few questions. First of all, who could be the father figure or the commanding voice? Second, which thoughts of the poet are right? They naturally imply that there are certain thoughts that are not right. But the son’s thoughts are right. What could be those thoughts? Third, one wonders what are the wrongs needing to be righted? The first poem of the book is entitled Write, My Son, Write. It repeats the title of the book, but the pronoun “my” is added. This shows that the father figure has a sense of possession of the poet.

Part One

My son,

I have a mission

in your creation,

God spoke

to my ears.

Why do you

look up?

Look at the tip

of your pen.

I am the ball

of your pen;

I am the ink

that flows

on the paper.

Write, my son,

write.

Write till

I say stop.

EXPLICATION: The poem opens with the lines—My Son / I have a mission / in your creation / God spoke / to my ears. Any creative activity has some purpose. In other words, the creation is not a leela or sport of God. Nor is it fortuitous. Be that as it may, it is a voice from heaven. No wonder the poet looks up. He seeks to find the source of the voice. The voice in response saysywhy do you look up? Look at the tip of your pen. I am the ink that flows on the paper. Write, my son, Write. Write till I say stop. This is a revelation. This is a shruti or voice from God that has been embodied in the Vedas and in the Koran. The first known Anglo-Saxon Christian poet, Caedmon, was an unlettered herdsman. One day he was fast asleep and saw a dream, in which an angel asked Caedmon to sing in praise of God. From that day onward, he began to sing in praise of God, and translated the Bible into the Anglo Saxon language. And here also, the voice of God commands Dominic to write. This shows that the voice of God can be heard even today, in our Godless, materialistic society. However, the voice of God tells the poet that he is the ball of the pen and he is the ink of the pen. In other words, the poet’s tool, and his words, are God himself.

This is archetypal imagery. In the ancient myths of India in the puranas and the Mahabharata, God gifted weapons to heroes, enabling them fight the evils in the world. The greatest warrior of the Mahabharata, Arjuna, was blessed with such weapons by the Fire God and Lord Shiva himself. Here, the poet’s pen is God himself, and the poet’s ink is God himself. When we worship any deity, we worship the weapon also that the deity carries. We worship the trident when we worship Lord Shiva; the trident itself is God. This is a bit of paganism. The pagans see a dryad in every tree and a naiad in every water ripple. The poet’s instrument of writing and the ink used are God. Thus the poet is a demigod. Instead of sword and arrows, our poet is blessed with a pen. Well, the pen is mightier than the sword. One wonders whether this weapon for the poet is intended to fight against a sea of troubles. Is it a preparation for an Armageddon in which the poet is supposed to take part to fight the many troubles that ravage our existence?

The pen could be interpreted as the living body. The ink could stand for the blood and the breath of the body. The poet might be likened to the individual soul or the jivaatman residing in the body. And the voice from heaven may be the one omnipresent soul or Brahman presiding over existence.

We may grant that the human body and its blood are God, or divine. However, the soul that resides in it does not pay any heed to the will of God. Maybe that is why the activities of the individual soul have created such havoc in our world. God had a purpose in creating the universe. But because of the individual souls residing in the body, because of us, God’s designs are being frustrated. This is a world view. God therefore selects the poet, a man among men, and commands him to write until God asks him to stop. Thus the poet here is the chosen seed of God. In ancient times, poets and prophets were deemed as one. A poet is a prophet. In Sanskrit it has been said, “kavih kraantadarshih.”

Part Two

Don’t you feel

the symphony

of the universe?

It grieves me that

your species seldom

senses my rhythm.

Plants and animals

dance to my number.

EXPLICATION: The voice of God asks us whether we feel that the universe is a symphony. God asserts that the plants and animals dance through the numbers generated by God. This is a world view, largely supported by the modern string theory of physics. According to string theory, everything whatever that we perceive is a string or a combination of strings. A string is length without width, and it vibrates. This vibration is perceived by us as different shapes and forces. The existence of strings is momentary. Consequently the world is in a flux.