Night of the Scorpion

I remember the night my mother
was stung by a scorpion. Ten hours
of steady rain had driven him
to crawl beneath a sack of rice.

Parting with his poison – flash
of diabolic tail in the dark room –
he risked the rain again.

The peasants came like swarms of flies
and buzzed the name of God a hundred times
to paralyse the Evil One.

With candles and with lanterns
throwing giant scorpion shadows
on the mud-baked walls
they searched for him: he was not found.
They clicked their tongues.
With every movement that the scorpion made his poison moved in Mother’s blood,
they said.

May he sit still, they said
May the sins of your previous birth
be burned away tonight, they said.
May your suffering decrease
the misfortunes of your next birth, they said.
May the sum of all evil
balanced in this unreal world

against the sum of good
become diminished by your pain.
May the poison purify your flesh

of desire, and your spirit of ambition,
they said, and they sat around
on the floor with my mother in the centre,
the peace of understanding on each face.
More candles, more lanterns, more neighbours,
more insects, and the endless rain.
My mother twisted through and through,
groaning on a mat.
My father, sceptic, rationalist,
trying every curse and blessing,
powder, mixture, herb and hybrid.
He even poured a little paraffin
upon the bitten toe and put a match to it.
I watched the flame feeding on my mother.
I watched the holy man perform his rites to tame the poison with an incantation.
After twenty hours
it lost its sting.

My mother only said
Thank God the scorpion picked on me
And spared my children.

              – Nissim Ezekiel (1924–2004)

• Written by Nissim Ezekiel (1924-2004), an Indian Jewish poet
• No rhyme or metrical pattern
• Theme of superstition and mother’s love for her children
• An incident of superstition/ignorance of a traditional Indian village
• The poet tells the incident that once happened when he was a small boy.

Interpretation of the Poem

This poem demonstrates two things: the first is superstition, and the second is mother’s love. The tale in the poem is about the incident that once happened in an Indian village when the poet was a small boy who could do nothing more than just watch and witness the event.

The poet remembers the night a scorpion stung his mother. All the villagers came and began to evoke God’s name and rebuke the Evil One. The scorpion had to be stopped moving for they believed, “With every movement that the scorpion made, his poison moved in Mother’s blood.” So, they searched for the scorpion all around, but did not find it. The act of scorpion sting and the extreme pain caused by it was connected to the sin of the previous life and the prospect of the next life. Also, the poison was believed to purify the flesh. They said the things like “May the sins of your previous birth be burned away tonight . . . May your suffering decrease the misfortunes of your next birth . . . May the poison purify your flesh of desire . . .” The boy’s father tried every curse and blessing, and all kinds of powder, herb and mixture to weaken the poison’s effect as his mother twisted and groaned with pain on a mat. He even burned the bitten toe in order to burn away the poison. There was also a holy man who performed his rites to tame the poison with an incantation. Superstitious beliefs and practices are clearly evident in such actions. The boy watched all this.

After twenty hours of fight and suffering, the sting and the poison lost their effect and the mother was finally relieved. Then, she thanked God for sparing her children – the scorpion stung her, but not her children. Here we see an instance of a mother’s love.

GLOSSARY

scorpion (n): arachnid of warm dry regions having a long segmented tail ending in a venomous stinger
sting (v): to bite
sting (n): scorpion’s painful bite
diabolic (adj): relating characteristic of devil
buzz (v): to murmur, hum, make low noise
diminish (v): to lessen, weaken
groaning (v): making painful utterance
incantation (n): chant, invocation, pray
sceptic (n): a person who doubts or questions everything
paraffin (n): kerosene