Nissim Ezekiel
Summary
The poem opens with the poet’s reminiscence of a childhood experience. One night it was raining and the scorpion
had to come to his house and stung (lrn]sf], 7’Fu]sf]) by his mother (a). Ten hours of steady rain had driven the scorpion to hiding beneath a sack of rice. After inflicting (lkl8t) unbearable pain upon the mother with a flash of its diabolic (bad) tail, the scorpion risked the rain again. The peasant-folk of the village came like swarms ( uf]nf]) of flies and expressed their sympathy. They believed that with every movement the scorpion made, the poison would move in mother’s blood. So, with lighted candles and lanterns they began to search for him, but in vain (b, c).
To console the mother they opened the bundle of their superstitions. They told mother that the suffering and pain will burn away the sins of her previous birth. “May the suffering decrease the misfortunes of your next birth too”, they said. Mother twisted and groaned in mortifying (nHhLt) pain (d). Her husband, who was sceptic (;+b]xjfbL) and rationalist, tried every curse and blessing; powder, herb and hybrid. As a last resort he even poured a little paraffin (d6\6Lt]n) oil on the bitten part and put a match to it. The painful night was long and the holy man came and played his part. He performed his rites and tried to tame the poison with an incantation (dGq). After twenty hours the poison lost its sting. The ironic twist in the poem comes when in the end the mother who suffered in silence opens her mouth (e). She says, “Thank God the scorpion picked on me and spared (;Gtfgsf] ;6\6f cfFk”mnfO{ 6f]s]sf]df v’zL eOg\) my children.”
Interpretation (ljj]rgf)
Night of the Scorpion is a strong yet simple statement on the power of self-effacing love, it captures a well-detached black and white snapshot of Indian village life with all its superstitious simplicity. The poet dramatizes a battle of ideas fought at night in lamplight between good and evil; between darkness and light; between rationalism and blind faith. And out of this confusion, there arises an unexpected winner – the selfless love of a mother. It creates a profound impact on the reader with interplay of images relating to good and evil, light and darkness. The beauty of the poem lies in that the mother’s comment lands the reader quite abruptly on simple, humane grounds with an ironic punch.
Indian Background: This poem presents an Indian village through the eyes of an outsider and finds the deep-rooted strains of superstition and blind faith which may seem foolish to the western eye.]. The poet does not turn a blind eye to the fellow-feeling, sympathy and cooperation shown by the villagers and it is the negative attitude to Indian village life. And in a poem that deals with the all-conquering power of love, the reader too should be well aware of it.
Clash of Ideas: There is a contrast between the world of irrationality (a’l4lxgtf) represented by the villagers and the world of rationalism represented by the father who tries all rational means to save his wife from suffering. Religion too plays its role with
