A Detailed Summary and Line by Line Explaination of the Night of the Scorpion
Detailed Summary:
The poet recalls very vividly (clearly) the night when his mother was stung by a scorpion. Ten hours of incessant rain had forced the scorpion to seek refuge in the poet’s house (rain water must have flooded its hiding place in the open) It sought refuge under a bag of rice and stung the poet’s mother when she went into that room. The viciously wicked creature poured its poison into her in a flash of its devilish tail and ventured out into the rain. On hearing of the unfortunate incident, the peasants rushed to the poet’s house with lighted candles and lanterns. They uttered the name of God countless times and prayed to God to immobilise the evil creature. Against the light of the lanterns, the shadows of the crowd cast on the mud walls looked like huge scorpions. The peasants looked for the scorpion everywhere where but it in vain. Being unsuccessful in their attempt to capture the scorpion they clicked their tongues. They were superstitious people and made several observations. They said that with every movement of the scorpion, its poison would also spread/course in the mother’s blood. Hence, it was imperative (essential) that the creature should not move at all and remain still. Some peasants said that her pain that night would burn away all her sins of her previous birth. They wished that her present agony should reduce her suffering in the next birth. They hoped that in this illusionary world where evil outweighs good deeds, her pain would diminish the quantum of evil. Some tried to console the mother with the remark that the scorpions poison would purify/cleanse her body of all desires and her soul of sinful ambition. They sat around the mother on the floor. Their faces were calm and peaceful. They had a look of understanding, as if she was meant to suffer to purify herself.
More and more neighbours arrived with lanterns and candles. The presence of the insects and the rain added to the chaos. There seemed to be no end to the mother’s
The poet recalls very vividly (clearly) the night when his mother was stung by a scorpion. Ten hours of incessant rain had forced the scorpion to seek refuge in the poet’s house (rain water must have flooded its hiding place in the open) It sought refuge under a bag of rice and stung the poet’s mother when she went into that room. The viciously wicked creature poured its poison into her in a flash of its devilish tail and ventured out into the rain. On hearing of the unfortunate incident, the peasants rushed to the poet’s house with lighted candles and lanterns. They uttered the name of God countless times and prayed to God to immobilise the evil creature. Against the light of the lanterns, the shadows of the crowd cast on the mud walls looked like huge scorpions. The peasants looked for the scorpion everywhere where but it in vain. Being unsuccessful in their attempt to capture the scorpion they clicked their tongues. They were superstitious people and made several observations. They said that with every movement of the scorpion, its poison would also spread/course in the mother’s blood. Hence, it was imperative (essential) that the creature should not move at all and remain still. Some peasants said that her pain that night would burn away all her sins of her previous birth. They wished that her present agony should reduce her suffering in the next birth. They hoped that in this illusionary world where evil outweighs good deeds, her pain would diminish the quantum of evil. Some tried to console the mother with the remark that the scorpions poison would purify/cleanse her body of all desires and her soul of sinful ambition. They sat around the mother on the floor. Their faces were calm and peaceful. They had a look of understanding, as if she was meant to suffer to purify herself.
More and more neighbours arrived with lanterns and candles. The presence of the insects and the rain added to the chaos. There seemed to be no end to the mother’s