Interpretation of Bengali Poem Matal by Sankha Ghosh

Eto kiser garje akash
Chinta bhabna shorirpat,
Benche thaklei bancha sohoj
morle mrityu sunirghat.
Etek bole ishot heshe
Takan motto mohashoy
Takan motto mohashoy.
Khanik matro gile nile
Ja shoyaben tai shoy.
Howrah Bridge e uthun
Niche takan urdhe chan
Duto matro samproday
Nirbodh r budhhiman.
– Sankha Ghosh

The poem, ‘Matal’ is written by Sankha Ghosh. The poet creates this to express the life of human. The poem is short length wise but the inner meaning reaches at the deepest point of realisation. The current people are thinking in a certain way, poet writes the poem after a keen observation of modern time. The poem bound people to think twice about their philosophy about lifestyle. There are some guise of bridge, sky and other realistic elements. Apart from these guises, the poem is all about the inner consciousness. There are examples of some poets all around the world, who take influences from their surroundings and catch the spirit of life in their creations. The poets like Wordsworth, William Shakespeare and others used the guise of nature or man-made wonders to search the real spirit.

Background
When the world is coming under some values and the heart of a certain region is changing, the poet creates this. Humans are involving with some dangers and they can’t identify their illness. They choose a specific life and run behind that. They believe that their desired life will be the best satisfaction and thus they can reach at the top point of pleasure. The realism is very tough to express and the poet did that tough job. The immortal of human get a notice to enrich them by philosophy.

Structure of the poem
There is certainly a rhythm in the poem which changes with the emotions. The structure is normal or regular and there are four lines in each paragraph. There are two paragraphs in the poem and each paragraph is fulfilled with different part of society. The poem is definitely a lyrical one and if ‘A’ is the first line and ‘B’ is the second then there is a similar rhythm in each ‘A’ ands ‘B’ of the poem.

Analysis
“eto kiser garje akash chinta bhabna shorirpat ”
The poet uses the sky as a symbol here and relates the health of human. The line asked the reason of thinking too much about the roaring of the sky and fall into some disease.

“Benche thaklei bancha sohoj. Morle mrityu sunirghat”
The line suddenly turns around and step towards the deepest realisation. When the person is alive then that is very easy to that person, because he or she has to survive. There must be some ups and downs in life but if anybody wants to live then he or she has to fight against every barricade. Then the poet gives an example of crudity. He says if the person wants to die and if his or her desire is true then it is very easy to die for anyone. There is imagery also. The poet asked the question about every fight of world and says that the life and death is very easy. The most important thing is trueness of demand.

etok bole ishot heshe takan otto mohashoy”
Then the emotion changes again and makes fun about the humans. The spirit of the line is cruel fun about the terrorism of humans and after a little smile the idol man or the imaginary male (who can shows the right path) just look up. The poet uses the line ‘Takan motto mohashoy’ twice, because the poet wants to highlight the line and specially the word ‘Mohashoy’. Poet wants to draw the attention towards the idol man and call the people of all around the world to walk on the path of that man. The poet doesn’t brief the man; he just gives a cue about the man and leaves the reader to imagine. This proves that the poet can think and want to give the space of thinking to his readers.

khanik matro gile nile ja shoaben tai shoy”
The insult is in the top level. The poet says that when the person drinks something and get into trance then he or she can bother anything. The whole world love to live in specific trance and most people are enjoying it. The trance takes the people at unconscious level and people can’t keep their senses behind their actions. So, doing something in intoxication means that the unconscious reaches on the top of conscious. Drivers want to drive their followers at their path. Some path can be wrong but people are not in that sense to identify the wrong way. So they flow away and meet the hell.

howrah bridge er mathhay uthhun niche takan urdhhe chan”
The poet says the people to get up at the Howrah Bridge and look at up and down. The Bridge is a realistic sign; the actual point is a high place from the plain. The use of Bridge can described as a place of gathering of many people. So reach at a high place where numbers of crowds are present and open your eyes to see.

“duto matro sampraday nirbodh r budhhiman”
These are the last two lines and the poet turns the previous mood towards humanity. There is lots of status which are present deeply in society. Every society follows their divisions and leads their lifestyle with that. So there are many separations between humans. These differences are the cause of some harms of world. There are numbers of examples of destroy and losses. The poet says that there are two kinds of division in the world. One is fool and the other one is intelligent.

Summary
The poem starts with the thinking about the health of humans. The reason of living in depression is the source of thriving of the endless medium. The life and death both are very easy. The main thing is the accurate requirement of life or death. If someone wants to live then he or she has to do those things for which he or she can survive but that doesn’t mean that people can harm others to survive because the death is very smooth also. Then the poet smiles on those people who do terrorisms in trance. Not only the terrorists but also the people live in intoxication and do every thing in high. So the senses changed automatically and in subdued level of society harmful things are spreading. The poet holds the division between humans is the main reason behind this hazard. So he divides the humans of this whole earth in two parts, trick and sharp.

Importance of the poem
The poem is all about the modern society and humans. So people who have no idea about their activities, they should identify their own and lead a life with completely their own philosophy. The spirit of the real situation of current globe is brightly present in the poem. The call of the poem is very true which is to gather the people in a certain comment.