The Lunatic

-          Laxmi Prasad Devkota (1909-1959)

I. Literal Comprehension

            Context: This poem is written by Laxmi Prasad Devkota (1909-1959), popularly acclaimed as mahakavi (great poet) in Nepali literature, a versatile writer who has experimented with all literary genres and has produced more than forty books such as Muna Madan (1935), Shakuntala (1945), and Laxmi Nibandha Sangraha (1945). The Lunatic (1956) is the poet’s own translation into English of his autobiographical poem ‘Pagal’. The speaker accepts that he is insane, but can do what his friend, a worldly man, cannot. He can see the sound, hear the visuals, and taste the fragrance. He can see and touch the object which his friend cannot. He can see a flower in the stone. He can talk to the moonbirds using the language which is unintelligible for other people.

            The speaker’s friend is clever and eloquent. He is realistic, so depends upon his five senses and mind. The speaker is emotional and uses his heart. He works with his sixth sense and one minus one is always one for him. What his friend sees only a rose embodies Helen and Padmini for him. He says his friend is money-minded, so he has money, gold, and diamond in his mind. The speaker follows the abstract dream, so he has no clear idea in his mind. His life is sorrowful.

            The speaker realized the truth of human life when he saw burning corpse at ghat and stayed shocked for seven days. People called him obsessed. When he realized even a beautiful girl can be old and ugly, he wept for three days. People called him deeply affected by the emotion. Again when he danced in frenzy of the happiness at the arrival of the spring, people called him crazy and put him in stocks. He was taken to Ranchi for treatment. When he lay upon his bed stretching his body, one of his friends pinched him and called him mad.

            The speaker thinks that the wine the Nawab drinks is the blood of the poor. A concubine is a corpse. And a king is a pauper. He has deplored the great people, and praised the common people. Since the speaker has an opposite perception than that of his friends, he thinks the learned are fools and the heaven is the hell. The gold is the iron for him, and people’s way of showing respect to God is the sin for him. The speaker’s friend thinks himself as smart, but he finds the friend dim-witted and innocent.

            The speaker thinks that a penancer is a runaway and the deserter of humanity. The liars are the clowns and the defeated ones are the victors. He keeps on asking questions after questions to the world, so he is a crackpot for other common people.

            The speaker deplores the shamelessness of the leadership for depriving the people of their rights. The newspapers are full of the lies that challenge the speaker’s reason and make him furious. The general public gulp the poison of the rumour taking it as ambrosia. His hair rises like the angry serpent-tresses of the Gorgons, and he feels his bones as strong as of Dadhichi when he sees the injustice being done to the innocent people around. He loses his control upon his body and mind.

II. Interpretation

            This poem is an irony toward the worldly affairs. The poet has expressed it through the contrasts used in the poem. The poet has worn the mask or the persona of ‘I’, the lunatic, and has compared himself with the addressee ‘you’, a common man who is money-minded and has interest in the worldly affairs. The poet has been able to establish the idea in the poem that he is a superior human being with high sensitivity and understanding of the world different from other money-minded common people. But he is often misunderstood by the other people.

            The poet has also proved himself as highly conscious by protesting the social injustice being done to the helpless and inferiors by the powerful. He expresses his rage toward it and declares himself as a rebel. Actually, the poem can be taken as a political protest poem that has criticized the then rulers and their henchmen.

III. Critical Thinking

            The poet has rightly worn the mask of a lunatic in the poem to feel comfortable to criticize the injustice and to put forward his differences with the people around him. Otherwise, it would have been much difficult for him in doing so. He has, at least, got the freedom for free expression of his heart. The mask has provided him with the cover to expose the phoniness of the world around him. But does a traditionally insane man behaves and talks like the speaker of the poem? The sounds rather like a philosopher and a sage who protests the conventions of the world.

IV. Assimilation

Sometimes, I feel like the speaker of the poem. I find many people who are not concerned about the humanity. The money-minded and self-centered people cause a lot of trouble to me. On many occasions, they have tried to humiliate or insult me just because I am not so practical as they think they are. Now, I have realized that it’s not my fault. Actually, it’s the fault of their lack of understanding the world humanly. 
ALSO READ THIS POEM IN NEPALI