The Unrest of Desire

GLOSSARY AND NOTES

 

L4 probe - study, examine, look into, search insistent - not allowing denial or opposition, forceful, persistent

L.8 cave impulse -an impulse to be free and uncontrolled in one’s activities and desires, animal instinct, primordial compulsions

L.11 etch - make a picture or a line with a needle like object

L.12 Aborigine - belonging to a very early period, primitive

L.13 bison - American buffalo, European wild ox loping - jumping, moving about at a fast pace

L.14 erase - remove by rubbing or scratching

 

Objective TYPE QUESTIONS

 

Q1. Who is the poet of ‘The Unrest of Desire’?

Ans. K. N. Daruwala

 

Q2. What is manifest through the expression in one’s eyes?

Ans. A strong desire.

 

Q3. What type of idea is expressed in this poem?

Ans. An abstract idea

 

Q4. Give one example of concrete imagery to express the abstract idea used by the poet?

Ans. A bison or stag being traced on a wall with charcoal.

 

Q5. How a person try to hide the unrest of desire?

Ans. A person try to hide the unrest of desire by wearing a mask on his face.

 

Q6. Can the desire of unrest be suppressed for a long time?

Ans. No

 

SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS

 

1Q. What does the poet mean by ‘The Unrest of Desire’?

Ans. It means a strong desire makes a man uneasy. The desires of love, hatred, hunger etc. cannot be suppressed for a long time. It they are suppressed, they bring restlessness, uneasiness and agitation in the mind.

 

2Q. Where does the unrest of desire usually show itself?

Ans. The unrest of desire usually shows itself in the eyes of a person. The person may try to keep his desire hidden in his heart but it would manifest itself in some way through the expression in his eyes.

 

3Q. What, according to the poet, are the different ways in which people try to suppress or hide the unrest of desire?

Ans. People try to suppress the unrest of desire by wearing a mask on the face. They try to pretend to be gentle and soft. They try to bury their desires in the deepest recesses of their heart. They also try to hide these desires under the weight of stones, sand and cement.

 

Q4. Why does a man ‘etch the shadow on the cavern wall’ or ‘Turn the drives into aborigine art’?

Ans. He wants to check his ‘unrest of desire’. So he try to draw all sorts of pictures with a piece of charcoal on the walls of a cave in order to give a false representation of his desire.

 

Q5. What is the central idea of the poem? (50 Words)

Ans. A person can never suppress his ‘unrest of desire’. It is neither possible nor desirable to hide the ‘unrest of desire’. He can try his best to suppress his desires but he will fail surely in his efforts for a long time. His desires would never quit his heart and would even haunt him in his dreams.

 

ABOUT THE POET

Keki N. Daruwala (born 1937) is an Indian Parsi poet and short story writer in English language. He is also a former Indian Police Service officer. He was awarded the Sahitya Academy Award, in 1984 for his poetry collection, The Keeper of the Dead, by the Sahitya Academy, India's National Academy of Letters. He was awarded Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award in India, in 2014. He has written 12 books and his first novel ‘For Pepper and Christ’ was published in 2009. He received the Commonwealth Poetry Prize for Asia in 1987. Mr. Daruwala, popularly known as Keki, is a born poet. ‘Writing a poem’, says he, ‘is like a clot going out of the blood.’ Nissim Ezekiel comments "Daruwala has the energy of the lion".

 

TEXT OF THE POEM

 

The unrest of desire is lit up with eyes,

whatever the mask you slap upon your face,

however you tear at the soft throat of life

 

and probe the salt-blood with your insistent tongue. The unrest of desire is revealed by eyes. 5

 

However you bury the shadow in the heart,

under slabs of concrete and a coil of bone,

however you wall the cave-impulse at the mouth.

It will hammer at the sides and break free- however you bury the shadow in the heart. 10

 

You may etch the shadow on the cavern-wall

and turn the drives into aborigine art,

bison and stag loping in charcoal lines,

You can’t erase the burn. It will char your dreams,

however you bury the shadow in the heart. 15

REFERENCE TO THE CONTEXT: These lines have been taken form the poem ‘The Unrest of Desire’ written by K. N. Daruwala. In these lines, the poet conveys the idea that suppression of one’s instincts is neither possible nor desirable.

EXPLANATION (L1 TO L5) In the opening stanza, the poet says that the eyes of a person are the true mirror to the mind. The eyes reveal the mental disturbance of the person. A man may wear a mask or may throw some sort of disguise over the expression of his face, but he would not be able to mask the expression in his eyes. He may try to examine the cause of his hot blood with his forceful arguments. A desire would never fail to manifest itself through the expression in his eyes.

 

EXPLANATION (L6-L10) In these lines, the poet says that a person may try his best to suppress the desire in the deepest recesses of his heart. He may make an effort to bury it under the slabs of sand, stones and cement or under a heap of bones. However, he will fail in his attempts. The desire will break open all the walls of the cave. The desire cannot be kept under any control.

 

EXPLANATION (L11-L15) In the concluding stanza, the poet argues that a person may turn to art and, like the primitive artist, draw pictures or lines with a needle on the wall. He may draw the pictures of wild animals such as the stag and the bison with charcoal. However, he will not be able to conceal his desires. His desires will find expression in the lines and pictures drawn by him. If he loses control over his desires, they will burn all his dreams of art. Thus it is neither possible nor desirable to suppress the desires in heart.

 

SUMMARY/ SUBSTANCE/ DEVELOPMENT OF THOUGHT OF THE POEM

 

‘The Unrest of Desire’ is written by K. N. Daruwala. A strong desire makes a man uneasy. He may try his best to keep his desire hidden in his heart but his desires would manifest itself in some way through the expression in his eyes. A man may wear a mask or may throw some sort of disguise over the expressions of his face, but he would not be able to mask the expression in his eyes. A man may put his heart’s desire under some heavy weight like that of a slab of cement or a large heap of bone, but his yes would betray the fact that there is a desire in his heart. A man may keep his mouth shut, but the desire in his heart would somehow escape his heart and enter his eyes and thus become visible. A man may draw all sorts of pictures with a piece of charcoal on the walls of a cave in order to give a false representation of his desire, but it would never quit his heart and would even haunt him in his dreams.