This next poem is really interesting and has a lot going on in it without actually having any figurative language or noticeable complexity to it.
Vietnam
“Woman, what’s your name? “I don’t know.”
“How old are you? Where are you from?” “I don’t know.”
“How long have you been hiding?” “I don’t know.”
“Why did you bite my finger?” “I don’t know.”
“Don’t you know that we won’t hurt you?” “I don’t know.”
“Whose side are you on?” “I don’t know.”
“This is war, you’ve got to choose.” “I don’t know.”
“Does your village still exist?” “I don’t know.”
“Are those your children?” “Yes.”
The entire poem consists of dialogue between what I believe to be a US soldier and a Vietnamese woman. Pretty much any work of art about Vietnam will be very emotionally charged and typically quite political. What’s impressive about this poem especially, however, is that the poet does not opt for the common route for war-themed works of art. This common route is the heavy use of vivid imagery to convey the horrors of war and basically frighten the reader/observer enough to make him realize the human toll of war. Wislawa Szymborska creates such a relatively simple poem that manages to be as powerful as any imagery-dependant poems/works of art in general. The repetition of “I don’t know” after 8/9 lines reinforces the sense of chaos and confusion during war. The fact that she only answers “Yes” when asked about her children tells us how utterly lost this woman is. She is displaced from her home, doesn’t know if her village exists anymore, has no idea what side she is on, and bit a soldier out of fright. Her life seems to be in great disorder. I just wanted to post this poem because I love how Szymborska can convey so much in 9 lines of simple dialogue.
2 comments:
I'm not sure that you can say that the woman doesn't know what side she is on--I think that she may know quite clearly, but chooses not to answer that question for fear of retaliation. She does, however, answer the question about her children because, as Rob said, she feels the need to protect her children above anything else. During Vietnam, one of the fundamental problems was not being able to distinguish the "enemy" from the civilian, and I think that this poem illustrates that...even when the U.S. made an effort to find out who was and wasn't on our side, it was impossible. This is certainly a subtle political poem with plenty of nuances...very impressive.
Its amazing how poems can bare such different interpretations. And with merely a dialogue, so much of the situation presented is left to the imagination it seems hard to really grasp the entire seeting of the poem. Is the man making gestures to a woman who cannot understand hardly any english? is she playing dumb until her children are put at risk? is she just confused and has no idea what is going on around her and all she knows is that she wants her kids to be with her? I feel the author presents the poem in this manner to show just how confusing vietnam was-- no one had any idea who was fighting for who, what villages were safe, and the vietnamese as affected by such high stress levels they were going crazy. This woman just seems to hide, and bite, and nod her head-- she really doesn't totally know for what reason, but thats what she does out of shere nervous breakdown/terror. The only thing she can truly grasp is her need for her children to be with her, as they are her deepest of concerns.
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