you are the Mother

You are the mother

  By Mahagama Sekara

 He pressed his knees on the velvet smooth ground
And worshipped the place
Where his mother lay buried
There had sprung a flower
White and nameless
Which he kissed bowing his head

 You are my mother who carried me in the womb
 For about ten months
And bought me into the world

 You are the mother who
With endless suffering nurtured me in this world
You who, having boiled the leaves of the sweet potato
And sprinkled salt and mixed in coconut
Fed me when I cried in hunger

You got up early in the morning
And cooked the snack to be sold in the bar
And with those small profits clothed me

You oiled my hair and
Hung the panchayuda around my neck
Took me by the hand
And brought me to school

 You walked through bushes thorny and wild

Brought the rushes and dyed them red and green
Wove fancy patterned mats and
Taught me in childhood itself that this universe has a pattern

 I did not know, mother
Your body was a mirror
Which reflects my mind now

 In your sunken eyes I saw
Neither happiness nor sorrow
Having borne all happiness and sorrow
Indifferently
Did you attain peace in your mind?

I earned money
And fame
Had mansion and vehicles
But no peace of mind
Through any of them

 You had long known the truth
Though you had nothing of the sort

  Mahagama Sekara

 He was born on 7^th April 1929 in Radawana, Colombo, Sri Lanka.  He is a Sri Lankan poet.  He is one the well-known lyricist, playwright, translator and filmmaker. He is a famous figure in Sinhala literature.  Mahagama Sekara is well remembered as a songwriter.  His works are very popular in Sri Lanka.  His works are influenced by Buddhist thoughts.  His works are well quoted in literary works even after his death.  He did his doctorate studies at Vidyodaya University of Ceylon in 1974.  

His thesis studies on “Sinhala Gadya Padya NIrmana Kerehi Ridmaya Balapa Athi Akaraya” (Rhythm on Sinhala Prose and Poetry) was submitted to the University in 1975.  He was sincerely editing his thesis at the time of passing away.His awards are many such as Dina Dina Award for the Paiting Mahabinishkaramana at the Annual Art Exhibition in 1956. Award for the Best Lyric Writer for the song “Sinidu Sudu Mudu Thalave” composed for the film Sath Samudura (directed by Dr Siri Gunasinghe at the Sarasaviya Film Festival in 1970.  Jin 1971 Thun Man Handiya honored him with the award for the Most Promising Director.

 Summary of the poem

 The poem is a beautiful dedicational song for the poet’s mother.  He recollects his childhood memory in which he could bring his mother’s sufferings and their poverty.  Each lines express the pain of the mother in bringing up the child without any moral support. She works hard to give the best to her only son.  The son who grows with the pain and the suffering of the mother becomes the best in the society.  He is a proud son where he could afford to buy a comfortable mansion with luxury vehicles.  But he lives in darkness without peace of mind.  He is longs for his mother who is no more. He loves to give the best to his mother which is not possible, the reality is in front of the author but he longs for the impossibility.

 Detail analysis of the poem

 “He pressed his knees on the velvet smooth ground
And worshipped the place
Where his mother lay buried
There had sprung a flower
White and nameless
Which he kissed bowing his head”

 In the first stanza the poet expresses his prayers and worships to his dead mother.  It could be her death anniversary or the normal everyday visit to her tomb.  The poet wants to be with his mother literally by visit her burial place.  The place is so silent but for the poet it is a holy pace and he kneels down and kisses the holy place with bowing his head.  No words needed to express his sadness and love for his mother.  He speaks and expresses his love through his tears and actions.

 “You are my mother who carried me in the womb
 For about ten months
And bought me into the world”

 With three lines in this stanza readers could feel the deep thoughts behind it.  The poet says the painful experience of a mother being pregnant without any single support.  Carrying a child in her womb as a single mother she faces lot of emotional insecurities.  But she wait patiently for ten months to give birth to the child.  She bring the child into this world proudly knowing her new challenges she going to face thereafter.

 “You are the mother who
With endless suffering nurtured me in this world
You who, having boiled the leaves of the sweet potato
And sprinkled salt and mixed in coconut
Fed me when I cried in hunger”

 The poet remembers his mother’s struggle against poverty.  The poet shares his childhood life.  The mother works very hard to feed him.   She boils the leaves of the sweet potato, sprinkles salt and mixes with little coconut.  This is the healthy food he gets when he cries in hunger.  But he is a happy child to get the affection and love of mother who is ready to give her life for the son.  He is her life.  She sees the son as the meaning of life.  He is her world.  It is a small nest where the readers could see the mother bird feeding its only child bird.  The poverty gets defeated before the love a mother.

 “You got up early in the morning
And cooked the snack to be sold in the bar
And with those small profits clothed me”

 Then the poet continues in the fourth stanza the suffering of his mother.  Her daily routines are mentioned here.  She cooks the snacks early in the morning and sells them in the bar and gets a few coins.  With that profit she buys clothes for her son.  She tries to give the best to her son.

 “You oiled my hair and
Hung the panchayuda around my neck
Took me by the hand
And brought me to school”

 The most beautiful stanza.  The poet recollects the sweetest child hood memory.  The mother applies oil to his hair and combs neatly to look perfect.  She is very clean and expects discipline in what she does.  She ties Panchayuda around her son’s neck. Panchayuda is a holy coin which contains a prayer addressed to the five weapons of the Lord Vishnu.  She gives to her son for his security.  She is very keen in protecting her son from all dangers.  She takes him to school holding his hand, gives him protection and hope.

 “You walked through bushes thorny and wild
Brought the rushes and dyed them red and green
Wove fancy patterned mats and
Taught me in childhood itself that this universe has a pattern”

 The poet says all the hard works his mother does to give him a comfortable life.  She walks among the thorny bushes and brings rushes dye them with red and green and makes fancy patterned mats to be sold.  She says life is full of colors and the universe has a complex patterns.  It is for us to study them and learn those patterns to move so as to face the unexpected and the unknown.

  “I did not know, mother
Your body was a mirror
Which reflects my mind now”

 This stanza too contain three lines.  A short but a meaningful one.  The poet sees the world through his mother. She is the mirror where he could see himself.  His mother is his world, where he leans the lessons of life.  She is the best example, inspiration and motivation to the son.

 “In your sunken eyes I saw
Neither happiness nor sorrow
Having borne all happiness and sorrow
Indifferently
Did you attain peace in your mind”?

 The poet shifts from a stable condition to shakes position.  He brings back his childhood memory with his mother.  He never seen her mother’s tears or smiles.  She is a woman of determination.  Her sufferings never made her weak.  Her hardships and pain made her strong.  There is no time and no chances for tears and smiles.  She knows without pain no gain.  Her only hope is her son.  She is there for him.  But the poet is concerned about her peace of mind.  He asks to himself whether she is at peace now.

“I earned money
And fame
Had mansion and vehicles
But no peace of mind
Through any of them”

 Now the poet leads a comfortable life with big mansion, luxury vehicles and with name and fame. But these would not give him peace of mind to him.  His mother is no more but she gave the best to him.  Now she is not there to see the happiness of her son.  He is living alone in the world. Without his mother he is empty, he is not whole, somewhere he could not be whole as he misses his mother.  His inspiration motivation and life is not there.  He wants her back desperately but nature has its own rules for life and death.

 “You had long known the truth
Though you had nothing of the sort”

 The two lines conclude the poem.  Its gives the world a bitter truth. The poet realizes the truth.  When they struggle with poverty they could not feel the comfort and peace, same way now the son could not feel peace of mind even though he lives a comfortable life.  What could bring peace of mind and happiness is a universal message in the poem.  The question and the answer both we could find in the concluding part.

 Poetical techniques

 The ten stanzas poem with different lines pattern.  The poem expresses the unconditional love of a mother and a desperate expectation of a lonely son. 

“Velvet smooth ground” the poet’s visits his mother’s tomb where he kneels down to pay his respects.  The ground is grassy and looks like a velvet carpet for the poet.  It is a holy place and everything look divine and incomparable.  He compares the grass land to a smooth velvet place.

“Worshipped” he bows and prays and pays his respects to his dead mother.  Worship is related to God, but for the poet the mother is a goddess to him and he worships her.  “Flower white and nameless” the white flower represents the purity of his mother.  It could make the readers feel the poet could see his mother in that nameless flower.  The departed soul could have tried to communicate with her lonely son.

 “Carried me in the womb” the mother bears the child in her womb for ten months.  She bears the pain with determination “Carried” says the incubation period of a child.  She carries the child wherever she goes. “Endless suffering” ironically the poet says his mother’s suffering comes to an end with her death.  “Boiled the leaves….”  The description bring out an image of a poor mother and her son before our eyes.  The sense of poverty comes out in lines with utmost decency.

 “Small profits” a comfortable narration which could give a satisfaction to the readers as the mother works hard in a right path to provide his son with fine clothes.  “Panchayuda around my neck” is a symbol of five protective divine weapon of Lord Vishnu which could save the son from all dangers.  The religious belief of a mother and her chief concern on her son is portrayed here.  “Took my hand”   the hope she gave to her son, the affection shown to the son, the path is showed to the son, and the future is taught to the son by the grip of her hands.  “Thorny bushes and wild” is a metaphor.  We could connect the mother’s life to such thorny bushes literally it means her sufferings.  But she is very strong to walk in the thorny paths.

  “Universe has a pattern” only those who suffer could see the meaning of life.  The mother teaches the life to her son, pattern means different types of challenges everyone has to face.  “Your body was a mirror” again a comparison is made to show the similar thoughts of mother and son.  He could fee the same thoughts as his mother.  He sees the world through his mother.  His world is his mother only, where he learned the life.  “Did you attain peace in mind” a doubtful question which brings out the pain of the poet. “But no peace of mind” in the 9^th stanza he expresses his agony in an unstable condition.  He lives a comfortable life with name and fame.  But he find no peace of mind, he wants his to hold his hands.  His emptiness makes him to search his dead mother.

 “You had long known the truth” a great message by the poet.  Mother is a symbol of poverty, struggle, pain and determination.  So she lives with no peace of mind.  There were number of reasons for her to lose her peace of mind.  But the son has a good name and lives a celebrity life finds no peace of mind.  He is without his mother, his goddess is not there.  It is a very hard and long journey to reach the destination called “peace of mind.”

 Thank you