Butcher’s Shop by Charles Simic

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About Author

Charles Simic, born in Belgrade on May 9, 1938, is an American poet, essayist, translator and university professor. Elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, then Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, then Poet Laureate of the United States with the Library of Congress. He is also a professor emeritus at the University of New Hampshire, where he taught literary criticism and creative writing from 1974 to 2018. Charles Simic became known as a minimalist poet writing laconic, enigmatic poems similar to Japanese Buddhist haiku. Apart from poetry he has written various essays on various subjects such as Jazz, philosophy, aesthetics. Finally he disseminated Yugoslav poetry by translating the poets of his country of origin. He has written numerous articles in prestigious journals such as The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, The Harvard Review and The Georgia Review.

Summary

The poem Butcher’s Shop’ was composed by the poet Charles Simic. This poem presents the feeling of the speaker towards the scene of a butcher’s shop. When the speaker goes back home late night, he stops before a closed butcher shop. He observes a single light in the store which is not bright enough. It seems like a room of a jail where a criminal can dig a tunnel. The store is very small and only had a dim light.

The speaker sees the scene of the store. An apron is seen hanging on the hook, a map is on the wall but it is smeared into blood. There is a great amount of blood smeared everywhere. And a pool of blood can be seen in the shop. There are shining knives in the dark store. It is the place where meat is sold. Here, the poet compares the butcher’s shop with a dark church where handicapped and stupid people are brought to be healed.

The speaker also observes some broken bones in a wooden block. The floor seems to have been cleaned but dried. At the side of the store, the speaker is fed, and he hears a voice in the night. Here, the ‘speaker’ must have been an animal brought to be killed for meat.

In this way, the poet has presented his feeling that we human beings are cruel to animals and birds for meat.

यो कविता प्रस्तुत कवितामा एक मासु पसलेको दृश्यलाई वर्णन गरिएको छ । यहाँ वक्तालाई उक्त मासु पसलको दृश्यले सिर्जना गरेको भावनालाई पनि व्यक्त गरेको छ । प्रस्तुत कविताको वक्ता जब बन्द गरिएको मासु पसलको अगाडि रातमा रोकिन्छ, उसले एउटा सानो अँध्यारो तर सानो बत्ती बलेको store देख्छ । त्यो store जेलको एक सानो कोठा जस्तो थियो, जहाँ अपराधीले आफू भाग्ने सुरुङ बन्न सक्छ ।
प्रस्तुत कविताको वक्ताले hook मा झुन्ड्याइएको एउटा apron रगत पोतिएको एउटा map भित्तामा झुन्ड्याइएको देख्छ । उक्त store को भित्तामा र भुईमा सबैतिर रगतले पोतिएको अवस्थादेखि वक्तालाई यो store रगतको पोखरी थियो भन्ने अनुभूति हुन्छ । उसले store को एक छेउमा चम्किरहेको तरबार पनि देख्छ । त्यो तरवार एक अँध्यारो चर्चमा टल्किएको पूजा चौकी जस्तो देखिन्छ, जहाँ अपाङ्ग र मूर्खहरूलाई उपचार गर्न ल्याइन्छ।
वक्ताले उक्त store मा काठको block मा भाँचिएका हड्डीहरू पनि देख्छ, जसको तल जमिनमा सुकेको रगतका धब्बाहरू देखिन्छन् । यसको ठीक तल राखेर वक्तालाई केही खान दिइन्छ । तर उसले मध्यरातमा एक आवाज सुन्छ । यहाँ प्रस्तुत कविताको वक्ता उक्त मासु पसलमा मासु बनाएर बेच्नको लागि ल्याइएको पशु हुनुपर्छ ।
यसरी कविले मानव मासुको लागि जनावर र पशुपंक्षी प्रति निर्दयी भएको कुरा देखाउन खोजेका छन् ।

Answer the following questions.

a) What four things does the poet see in a butcher shop?

= The speaker (the Poet) sees four things in the butcher’s shop. They are a light, an apron, a knife and a wooden block.

b) The poet has created some powerful images in this poem. What images do you see? Describe them.

= The poet has created some powerful images in the poem. They are:

* Like the light in which the convict digs his tunnel.

* The rivers and oceans of blood.

* There are knives that glitter like a stars in a dark church.

* A river dried to its bed.

c) What does the poet mean when he says, ‘Where deep in the night I hear a voice.

= The speaker says “Where deep in the night I hear a voice.” It means that the speaker must have an animal brought there to be killed for meat, and it must hear the voice of other animal when they are killed at night.

d) Describe your feelings that the poem evokes in you.

= This poem evokes some feelings in my mind because we human beings are cruel to ignorant animals and birds to eat their meat. It is our savage nature and stupidity.