ராஜபார்வை - RAJAPAARVAI

WORLD POETRY SERIES -1 

 

The Poet : Tu FU (or Du Fu)- (712-770)       

Country: CHINA

POEM: Ballad of The Army Carts

THE POEM:

 

Wagons rattling and banging,
horses neighing and snorting,
conscripts marching, each with bow and arrows at his hip,
fathers and mothers, wives and children, running to see them off--
so much dust kicked up you can't see Xian-yang Bridge!
And the families pulling at their clothes, stamping feet in anger,
blocking the way and weeping--
ah, the sound of their wailing rises straight up to assault heaven.

And a passerby asks, 'What's going on?'
The soldier says simply, 'This happens all the time.
From age fifteen some are sent to guard the north,
and even at forty some work the army farms in the west.
When they leave home, the village headman has to wrap their turbans for them;
when they come back, white-haired, they're still guarding the frontier.
The frontier posts run with blood enough to fill an ocean,
and the war-loving Emperor's dreams of conquest have still not ended.

Hasn't he heard that in Han, east of the mountains,
there are two hundred prefectures, thousands and thousands of villages,
growing nothing but thorns?
And even where there is a sturdy wife to handle hoe and plough,
the poor crops grow raggedly in haphazard fields.

It's even worse for the men of Qin; they're such good fighters
they're driven from battle to battle like dogs or chickens.
Even though you were kind enough to ask, good sir,
perhaps I shouldn't express such resentment.

But take this winter, for instance,
they still haven't demobilized the troops of Guanxi,
and the tax collectors are pressing everyone for land-fees--
land-fees!--from where is that money supposed to come?
Truly, it is an evil thing to bear a son these days,
it is much better to have daughters;
at least you can marry a daughter to the neighbor,
but a son is born only to die, his body lost in the wild grass.

Has my lord seen the shores of the Kokonor?
The white bones lie there in drifts, uncollected.

New ghosts complain and old ghosts weep,
under the lowering sky their voices cry out in the rain.'

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THE POET: Tu Fu (or Du Fu) (712-770) is among the most celebrated poets of the Tang era (618-907). Though his exact place of birth is not known, it is learnt that he was born in an aristocratic family in Gong County, Henan Province, China. His mother died when he was born and so he was raised by an aunt. He had five siblings, one who died young and all of whom are often mentioned in his poems. Tu Fu lost his Father in 740. His paternal Grandfather, Du Shenyan was a noted politician and poet during the reign of Empress Wu.

His early education was a strict, traditional Confucian education. Being a gifted boy, he started writing poems from the age seven. His traditional education made him a gentleman with great integrity and high moral standards. He traveled extensively in China to see life firsthand. When he was thirty-three, he met Li Po, who was already a nationally known poet, and thereafter maintained a strong admiration for his older contemporary. From Tu Fu’s prolific production of poetry spanning about 50 years, some 1,400 poems have survived. His earliest surviving poem comes from the year 735. He has produced a number of poems on social issues, possibly in response to deterioration in governance which he witnessed.

One of his earliest preserved poems from 750 was titled ‘The Songs of the Wagons’ and it gave a voice to the suffering soldiers of the times.  Since Confucianism regarded government as of vital concern to the wise man, there was a long tradition of using poetry as a vehicle for social and political criticism. He wrote from the heart on a variety of subjects. His place as a central figure of Chinese historical poetry is extremely just.

His compassion for others was what led him to be so well admired – throughout the centuries. Tu Fu’s “ballads,” are unusually direct, and his engagement with political events has gained for him the title of the “poet-historian.” He is also known as ‘The Chinese Shakespeare, Burns, Wordsworth or Ovid’ – to name, but a few’.

He presented his own opinions on current affairs, conflict and wars using his political heritage and natural enthusiasm. He openly spoke of the failures of the government, military tactics, personal experiences; friendships, life, love and more than this he wrote poems containing advice directly to the emperor. This is something seldom found during this era. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Tu Fu's writings are considered by many literary critics to be among the greatest of all time.

 

The Background to the poem

The Tang Dynasty in China was frequently engaged in a number of aggressive wars of territorial expansion, particularly into Central Asia and on the Korean peninsula. The wars enabled the Tang dynasty to greatly expand the territory of the empire. But these wars were certainly at the expense of the common peasants who were conscripted for years. At the end they saw their lands ruined by taxes and neglect. Due to such continuing losses of the people caused by frequent wars, the Lushan Rebellion broke out and it lasted for almost eight years. The rebellion brought much devastation to the central areas of the empire, including the capital cities of Chang’an and Luoyang.

Tu Fu gives the reader a vast panoramic view sweeping the history and happenings of his period. His descriptions of the conscripted men going to war behind the baggage wagons; their wives, parents, and children stumbling after them, weeping; soldiers driven “like dogs or chickens” are simply picturesque. Many of this poor conscripted lot have given their blood to satisfy the emperor’s expansionist ambitions.

MORE ON THE POEM: The poem, “The Ballad of the Army Wagons” was considered a turning point in Du Fu’s poetry. Perhaps it is the first poem of the Tang era (618-907) that overtly criticized a government policy of mindless conscription of farmers and other people and the sufferings of the families, relatives and friends of the conscripted. The poem was probably written to protest “a new drafting of reservists and ‘volunteers’ to fight against the Tibetans. … (David Hawkes in ‘A Little Primer of Tu Fu’, Oxford: Clarendon, 1967)

This long poem poignantly portrays the story of suffering of the common peasant who is conscripted into the Chinese army and sent away for years to serve the emperor. Tu Fu’s continuing loyalty to the Tang government was not an impediment to the vocal expressions of his deep anguish at what was happening in the nation. He poured out his increasing concerns about the fate of the nation in “Going Out to the Frontier” mindlessly and frequently and about the consequent unfathomable sufferings of the lower classes-  the peasant (common man).

The poem is in the form of a popular ballad, using varied line lengths between three and seven characters. The ballad form also includes use of stock phrases, and quite a high amount of repetition.

The Chinese (common man) strongly believed that the dead person’s spirit would be condemned to a ‘pathetic homelessness and unquenchable craving, like an aimless bird’ if the descendants did not perform proper burial and memorial rites for the dead. All the war-dead were improperly buried in far-off battle fields. The poet touchingly reflects on the overflowing sense of the common anguish about improper burials for all the ‘war-dead’ in far off battle fields. This poem has been praised for its acute sensitivity to the ordinary person’s beliefs, sufferings and losses.

 

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