Don’t cut down the trees, brother woodcutter

-    Balakrishna Sama (1902-1981)

(Translated by Michael Hutt)

I. Literal Comprehension

Context: Originally written in Nepali by Balakrishna Sama (1902-1981), a dramatist par excellence, a performing artist, painter, sculptor, poet, essayist, novelist, and short story writer, this poem advocates of nature conservation. It is translated into English by Michael Hutt. 

The speaker of the poem is trying to persuade the woodcutter not to cut down the trees. Therefore, he calls the woodcutter ‘brother’ and tries to establish emotional attachment with the trees using the phrase ‘dead mothers’ for them. He requests the woodcutter not to cut down the trees because they provide us with the motherly love and care. They protect us from the sun and the rain, seat us on their laps, carry us in their arms and shoulders, give us fruits and flowers, and kiss our foreheads with leafy lips. They also weep for us, but they cannot speak and plead with us. In winter, we sit around the fire and enjoy the warmth inside our homes. We sleep soundly in our warm beds all night, but the trees keep standing outside frostbitten to look after us like mothers of newly born babies. They only cannot express their inner feelings for us. But as soon as spring comes the trees attract us by their beauty.

II. Interpretation

This poem might be trying to tell us that we should save the trees because they are very much useful to us. They provide us with various everyday basic requirements. Therefore, the trees are like our dead mothers. It means they support and take care of us but cannot express their inner feelings for us. In this way, the poet has given the rank of ‘mother’ to nature and has emphasized the need for conserving it.

III. Critical Thinking

I support the poet’s idea for nature conservation. The trees should not be cut down. But is it possible for us to sit around the fire for warmth in winter without cutting down them? In fact, the poet has forgotten to check the reality in an effort to create a world of his imagination. He has imagined the trees as our ‘dead mothers’. But his imagination of the trees as dozing off like a newly born baby’s mother is too much of its kind. How can ‘dead mothers’ show all kinds of emotion for us? How can the trees have dreams like a person?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

IV.  Assimilation

This poem has taught me to treat the trees and plants as living beings. Therefore, I will not cut down the trees in future. I will also encourage others to conserve the trees. Now, I have understood that conserving trees is after all helping save my own existence.