No Smoke from the Chimneys by Siddhicharan Shrestha
Summary
“No Smoke from the Chimneys” is a poem written by Nepali poet
Siddhicharan Shrestha and translated by Michael Hutt. It is a metaphorical
poem in which the persona compared a lady with death. In Nepal during the
struggle for democracy, the poet has no time to wipe the blood from the
broken head so he says death do not call me, death does not call me. The
poet is disturbed by a woman's death during the struggle for democracy where
people are fighting to be free canceling their meals. Hence, he says that
united we stand and divided we fall.
Maybe this poem is trying to tell the condition of Nepalese people in the
Rana Regime. Nepalese people’s conditions, there was no education, no health
care, only Rana’s children can study, the compelled living condition of
ordinary people. Their expectation for democracy also interprets that women
are the barrier, who disturb doing work to their messengers.
Overall, the poem depicts how Rana reign was invariably bad for the down-to-earth people of Nepal, and how and why they have had 104 years of darkness in all domains. thus the poet suggests being united to have our rights via revolts.