Well, this morning, i received a quite funny, in fact, absolutely crazy wapp message. It dealt with a Marathi poem. It is a short but rich poem entitled "Audumbar". It is written by a gifted Marathi poet, Balkawi.
Balkawi was deeply influenced by the British Romantic poets, especially William Wordsworth. His poems hence are depictions of nature with photographic realism. The natural scenes he presents have an unmistakable symbolic aspect as well.
The poem "Audumbar", one of the best examples of ekphrastic poetry, presents a typical pastoral scene. It has been much interpreted. Some critics argue that it is a comment on life. Personally, i think that the poem is about art. In a deeply self-reflexive way, it depicts artistic detachment, shows how an artist, be a poet, be a composer, creates art, as a construct about life, but not (immersed/messed up) in life, so to say.
The interpretation sent to me this morning was dated Feb 27, 2018. It was the weirdest ever. It argued that the poem dealt with a discarded woman who was about to commit suicide as now she lacked any support, and the tree as God (poor fellow!) looked on nonchalantly!
Well, by no stretch of imagination can the poem be thus explained. True, great literature is appealing precisely because it may mean many things to multiple readers. Yet any and every reading has to be supported by the text, and should preferably fall within the probable/possible ambit Aristotle, too, talked about!
Can anyone, for example, argue that Kalidasa's "Shakuntalam" is about a Kanva- Shakuntala affair rather than the Dushyant-Shakuntala story? Yes, a crazy creep may so argue, but neither the actual text nor its possible analysis would grant such an interpretation!
Can anyone say that Shakespeare's "King Lear" was about the Fool, the King's companion, and not about the King? True, in the play, King Lear does behave extremely foolishly. Yet some such interpretation would be more foolish than the protagonist of the play, and not half as intelligent as the soon-to-disappear-from-the-play Fool's wisecracks that show the deluded king the falsehood beneath flagrant flattery which finally is his undoing!
In other words, every interpretation is possible, but not any interpretation is probable. And, oh, yes, every interpretation reflects the interpreter and his/her personality, and intended purpose, too! Hence, the weirdest interpretation of the poor poem was quite a mystery. Or was it a revelation actually? That is the question!
Pratima@ What we say about a person or a poem reflects on us, and not on the object of our gossip! India, for example, is surely not 'Independent Nation Declared In August', right?!? Especially when the ceremony this morning would object to such a colonial interpretation, right?
No comments:
Post a Comment