The poem ‘Refugee’ is allusory to the historical moment of China occupying
Tibet. The Tibetans became completely homeless and had to immigrate to
the neighboring country India. Due to the massive immigration, many
suffered problems like identity crisis and rootlessness.
The speaker in the poem voices the pain of his countrymen who struggled
for establishment. The narrator here is a school going boy. He painfully
recounts the fact that his mother told him that he was a refugee. In addition,
the road side tent in which they are living metaphorically symbolizes
aimless life of the refugees.
The trauma of the boy continues even in his school. His teacher teasingly
remarks at him that the letter ‘R’ has been engraved on his forehead. The
letter ‘R’ in this context refers to the painful state of being a refugee. The
struggle of the boy to break out of the crisis is emphasized when he says
he tried to scratch his forehead. But all his efforts go in vain with a result of
‘red brash’.
The problem of the boy’s crisis is heightened when he recounts the
languages he has known namely: his mother tongue to sing in joy, English
and Hindi for survival. Even the boy’s language suffers crisis as it is
sandwiched between two foreign languages Hindi and English.
The sole consolation for the boy in the midst of all the adverse
circumstances is that his name RAMZEN retains the Tibetan flavor.
Excepting the name, the boy’s identity seems to have been completely
engulfed by events over which he has no control.
Blog Archive
Monday, March 29, 2010
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I believe that there is a mistake in the last part of your summary for the poem "Refugee".
ReplyDeleteThe poets name is not Rangzen. Its Tenzin. What he is implying in the poem is that for him the R on his forehead refers to rangzen (freedom in tibetian) and not refugee.
yes you are correct
Deletethe view held by commentator seems much more apt,considering the context as well as nature of the poem and the tone in which the poet expresses his views...
ReplyDeleteA very nice poem...
ReplyDeleteit brings out the pain the tibetans had to through(probably still goin thro)at the hands of the chinese....chinese oppression s still not completely over in tibet..
Yes the name is Tenzin not Ramzen and there ain't any 'R' on his forehead .
ReplyDeleteYes it's Tenzin and R on his forehead is not mentioned.
ReplyDeleteThe letter R is Rangzen which means freedom in Tibetian. So he only sas that he yearns for freedom..
ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteThis is a very nice summary.
Thank you
Warm regards
Mark
www.bummerr.com
the summary was good thank u......
ReplyDeleteIt was good.
ReplyDeleteThe R on his forehead is rangzen not refugee.
THANKYOU
How'd you know? Wasn't mentioned anywhere
DeleteIt is mentioned in the poem-refugee
DeleteThank you for the wonderful summary. Please correct the last part of it, as everyone in comment section mentioned about "RANGZEN".
ReplyDelete