BONSAI BY BIRAJA BAL

 BONSAI

BIRAJA BAL

AUTHOR INTRODUCTION

NAME                    : Biraja bal             

NATIONALITY    : Indian

OCCUPATION.     : Poet 

TEXT OF THE POEM

Over there, it is

just a miniature banyan tree

Planted in a cement pot,

whose pale leaves shudder in the wind

and the hungry, dangling boughs

beat their crazy heads

upon the dusty floor of the terrace.

When the cloudless sky burns

like a blaze of fire,

the gardener keeps pouring water

into the flower pot in a supreme gesture of pity.

Time and again he cuts the tree's future

down to a small size, prunes its present

just to a bare minimum

with the gentle violence of scissors.

Who'll tell the gardener 

that the cement pot is a different world

altogether and despite air and water 

the tree is gasping for breath 

which should be allowed to flourish elsewhere on the earth? 

By this time 

the stunted banyan tree could have grown into a giant tree

and like able offspring, 

its cascading boughs should have cracked open the earth 

and pierced into it; children playing and swinging

in other boughs in gay abandon.

Why can't the banyan tree  

lovingly offer shelter to any wayfarer, 

or call the birds to perch on its branches 

to cackle in their sweet melodious voice? 

One day I told the banyan tree 

that the whole sky 

stretching from one horizon to another 

is all yours, this brown-crusted earth 

too belong to you, 

you've the strength to crack open 

the hardest of rocks; 

can't you break a mere cement pot! 

That very night 

a loud bang was heard.

Perhaps, the banyan tree broke the cement pot 

into pieces.

( Translated from Oriya from Durga Prasad Panda ) 

         

SUMMARY OF THE POEM:

(Bonsai is a style of growing plants in miniature form in pots.) 

    The poet starts the poem with the intimation of the bonsai banyan tree which is placed there. The Bonsai which is placed on the terrace experienced a scorching and eventually made the leaves pale and the stem of the bonsai's head touched the floor. So taking pity on the plant the gardener poured some water. With the help of the scissors, the gardener cuts the tree parts and minimises their size. The poet questions the situation that even though the plant is getting the air and water the bonsai which is enrooted in the cement pot is seeking breath and he explains the cement pot is different from the actual world and exclaiming it is a different world. The poet now engages us with the different scenario that if the plant is planted in the earth it would have grown into a giant tree unlike the miniature shape and its stems deeply cracked the earth with its majestic bough. And even children would have played and swung on branches of the tree. The tree would lovingly offer shelter to passersby strangers. The birds would make the place heaven with their melodious voice. 

    But now the poet tells the Bonsai, sooner the day will come, where the sky which is beyond the yonder belongs to you. You can crack the hardest rocks, won't you break the mere cement pot?

    And the very night poet hears the sound of the cement pot broken by the banyan tree. This poem symbolically represents how the suppressed people face so many obstacles from the dominating society. There will be a period where the oppressed people would break those stereotypes of being oppressed and will attain liberty.