Book Name: The Roots of the
Tree
Author’s Name: Mr.
VairaMuthu
Type Of the Book: Poem
Collections
Introduction:
For my book review, I have
read a Tamil Book "The Roots Of The Tree" Written by the greatest
Tamil poet Mr.Vairamuthu. In this book he reveals many things in every poem. He
deals with many ideal things like, The beauty of the Nation, Feminism, A pain
of the lover, Castism, Politics, Srilankan Tamilan etc... All the poems evoke
the reader’s mind, its just like a Battle cry for the youngsters. Finally he
gives great welcome to the year 2000 and he puts some request to the year 2000.
The Sweetness Of His Poetry:
The title of the first poem
is "Silent Earthquake" and also, he gives an interesting introduction
for this poetry,the lines are:
"HE IS THE MAN WHO
GROWS BEARD AND MISERY SIMILTONIOUSLY "
From these lines we can
easily understand,this poem is about a man's love failure so that is why the
poet gives the title "Silent Earthquake",it silently attacked his
heart. In this poetry the poet convey the pain of the lover, he has given a
good landscape for this poetry. The lover met his lady love in one moonlight in
the railway station the poet says;
"WHILE THE TRAINS TAKING
REST IN THE TRACK THERE MEET THE OLD FOUR EYES "
from these lines we can
easily understand the lovers did not speak anything but their eyes only spoke.
This poem is full of the man's mind voice but the poet said, that voice reached
his ladylove through their eyes, why don’t thry speak anything? Because, they
met in the train, now she got married she came with her husband. That also has
been mentioned by the poet. Here the poet makes the readers to feel the pain of
the lovers. I think if the poet write this poem after 2014, surely he would
have been given the title "Silent Tsunami", because it made a lot of
pain more than many earthquakes.
Another one poem is
"Delay" its like a dramatic poetry. A woman goes to the office late,
the manager asks reason for the delay, the woman's answer is framed as a poem.
From her answer we can know the thoughts of feminism and how the women overcome
the daily problems in the society. In the starting of this poem the woman said
to her manager
"Lets take down sir, i Will tell the
reason"
and finally she asks to
him
"what 80 pages end, do
you want another one...?"
the poet gave the end to
this poem with a strong question mark. In between these two lines the poet
tells many feminism thoughts.
"Red India" its
another one poem's title. First he portrays the beauty of our nation then the
second part shows the terrorism in our nation, because he wrote this poem in
the time of Raju Gandhi's death. In the second part he asks some questions
like;
"SHALL THE NATION,
WHICH WAS STRITCHED BY THE FOREIGNERS CAN BE TORNED BY INDIANS?"
"SHALL KASHMIR PLANTS
GIVE UP PRODUCING FLOWERS AND START TO PRODUCE BOMBS..?"
These kind of lines are the
symbolic representation of the terrorism.
In another one poem the poet
clearly shows the affect of castism, and here one line symbolically represent
that,
"A FREEDOM FIGHTER’S
CORPSE ASKS FREEDOME TO ENTER INTO GRAVEYARD"
The important poem of this
book is "Raththa Saasanam" its fully about the Srilankan Tamilans. In
the first line of this poem, the poet ordered to the 'National flag & Anthem'
"Oh The flag of Nation;
Lets fly in the half post, Oh Tehe Anthem of Nation; Lets sing as a
lamentation", because our peoples are killed by the srilankans without
mercy.... these lines shows the poets real feeling about the people. Finally he
praised one man who draws the world map, because he drew the Srilanka's map
with Indian map so he praised him as a "prophet" in the poem lines;
"He is a Prophet,
He is a Prophet,
You added Srilanka with India
He is a Prophet"
Comparison:
The great comparison in one
of the poem, the poet said,
"Tell, let me know
what is the difference between
the freedom and the youngster's degree"
He symbollically said from
these two things we don't have any use, both things are only use for the name.
We got freedom from the British before 60 years, but our freedom never help to
our growth of our nation in that kind our youngster's degree also never help to
their growth. Here the poet indirectly said the no use of freedom and the
degree threw this comparison.
Major Concept:
The major concept of this
poem is "BATTLE CRY FOR THE YOUTHS " For examples from his lines;
"IT IS BETTER TO BE
TOMB IN INDEPENDENT SRILANKA THAN BE SLAVE .."
"THOUGH MORNING STAR FALLS DOWN THERE IS
EAST SKY , COME MY YOUNGMAN"
"GET UP YOUTH, THERE IS
NO AFTER BIRTH AND BEFORE BIRTH. TODAY IS THE DAY"
All these lines evoke the
youth's mind to do something for nation and the peoples.
Conclusion:
In the final poem, the poet
welcomes the year 2000 with a lot of expectations. The poet eagarly waiting for
2000 because he hopes if it brings some good things the people's situation will
change. The poet never worries about his own life, his only love and concern
and everything is about the nation and the people. So he finally asked
something to the year 2000.
"BRING A NATION WHICH
DOES NOT HAVE WORRIES
BRING A MOON WHICH DOES NOT
KNOW TO DWINDLE
BRING THE GIFT OF
CONTENTMENT
BRING PEACE SO THAT THE EARTH
WILL SLEEP"
I believe the book
"Roots of the Tree" will make the strong roots in every readers mind
and heart and also make the people to do something for the nation and people.
- R. Phinehash
