THE MAGICAL EARTH – GULZAR

Inter second year – Summary

THE MAGICAL EARTH

– GULZAR

SUMMARY:

INTRODUCTION: The poem ‘The Magical Earth’ is written by Sompooran Singh Karla, whose pen name is Gulzar’s famous for writing Green Poems.  His Green Poems were written in Hindi and which were translated into English by Pavan Kumar Varma.  The poet glorifies the earth by describing her resources, richness and her great capacity to give.

Context and Meaning: Gulzar pays glorious tributes to the earth in his poem ‘The Magical Earth’.  He says that the earth has some magical powers in it.  He asserts that the earth knows how to do magic. He gives a long list of fruits and flowers that the earth gives us. He says that if you give guava seeds to the earth, it gives guava fruits and bitter gourd seed gives bitter gourd.  If he asks for a flower, the earth gives him pink flowers.  Whatever colour we give to the earth it returns to him the same.  Then the poet innocently asks whether earth hidden all these colours in the soil below and found nothing by digging it.  Finally he admits that the earth knows how to do magic and like a mother knows what the child’s choice is.

The poet says, the earth does many magical things.  They include the earth balancing tall coconut trees on its fingers when there are strong gusty winds trying to uproot them.  The earth gulps down any quantity of water or milk that falls on its surface.  It’s truly amazing that it has a huge stomach that can hide even a river inside.  The earth has the capacity to make the fruits sweet, and at the same time, the leaves tasteless.  He feels that the earth has a sugar go-down or rocks of lime beneath it.  The poet wonders from where, the earth gets the splendid variety of sweetness in pomegranates, plums and mangoes.  He is all praise for the magical earth that can make the bamboo tasteless but the sugarcane sweet. Though the fruits taste sweet, leaves are tasteless.  He explains the glory and capacity of the earth which is remarkable, immeasurable and ultimate.

CONCLUSION: Gulzar while praising the variety and richness of the earth, also expresses his gratitude for the environment which has sustained the human beings for centuries together.  The capacity of the earth and her diversity is remarkable and immeasurable.