Corona Says

Stop crying,
Oh man,
Stop cursing me
And listen.
I didn’t come here
Of my own free will.

I was invited.
Believe me,
I had no choice
but to visit you.
How many lives were lost
Because of me?
You count.
But have you ever counted
How many have died so far
Because of you and your wars?

You call yourself
‘the crown of creation’.
What about the others,
Those who fly in the sky,
Those who live in the ocean,
Those who crawl on the earth,
And those, the sources of your oxygen?
You think they all are your slaves
Who you can sell or kill
At your will.

Don’t blame me.
I just wanted to show you
How clean the blue sky looks
Without dust and smoke.
I wanted you to realize
How caged animals feel
In a zoo.

I came
Not to give you a test.
I came
So that mother Earth
Could have a little rest.

You claim that you know everything.
I just wanted you to know yourself
The earth is not your property alone –
It’s as much ours as yours.

Sure,
I will depart one day.
But remember
There’re many others like me.
They’ll come too.
If you don’t get rid of your inflated ego,
You’ll be back to your cave time
That you endured
Long, long, long ago …

              – Vishnu S. Rai (1951-)

Summary plus Interpretation of the Poem

This poem is composed by a Nepali professor and poet Vishnu Singh Rai during the first year of the recent coronavirus pandemic. The pandemic that broke out from China in December 2019, the resultant lockdown and its consequences have inspired V.S. Rai to write this poem.

In the poem coronavirus is the speaker, and it speaks to the human beings in the form of a dramatic monologue. Right from the very beginning the coronavirus has taken the defensive stance against the human blame and cursing done for the thousands of human deaths due to its infection. It starts by urging humans to stop blaming it for the deaths simply because, it says, it didn’t come on the earth on its own free will, but was invited by humans themselves. And it was not just invited but was compelled to come, which implies that the humans are themselves responsible for their loss. Then, it tries to rationalize by asking humans to compare the number of deaths caused by it with the number of deaths caused by human wars. Since coronavirus is a recent arrival, it is obviously the human wars that have caused far more human deaths throughout the human history. It being the case, human beings again lose the rationale for blaming the coronavirus.

After that, the corona proceeds to show humans’ sheer irresponsibility. It accuses humans of calling themselves ‘the crown of creation’ and thinking all other creatures as their slaves, thereby, exploiting, killing and doing whatever they like to other living creatures and their natural habitat. Against this backdrop of irresponsibility, corona tries to justify its acts. It says it has come to teach a lesson to the human beings. Hinting at the lockdown caused by the pandemic, it says that in visiting the earth it has wanted to give “a little rest” to the “mother Earth” and to show the humans “how clean the blue sky looks without dust and smoke.” Further, it says that it has wanted to make humans realize “how caged animals feel in a zoo” and make them know that the Earth is the common home for all the creatures, and not just the property of humans alone. Thus, it claims to be teaching a lesson to the irresponsible and ignorant human beings for which it is not to be taken wrong and cursed.

Finally, the corona warns the humans against not listening to it or not learning the lesson. It says that it will surely depart one day, but there are many others like it who will visit the humans in their time in future if the humans do not learn the lesson and mend their ways now. The humans who boast of the modern advancements will have to be “back to their cave time” if they keep inviting such infections in future too. The humans had better heed to the corona’s warning right now. 

GLOSSARY

cursing (v.): uttering offensive words in anger
crown (n.): authority
ego (n.): a person’s sense of self-importance
inflated (adj.): enlarged beyond truth or reasonableness
endured (v.): went through