The perfomance of Sunjata would often be accompanied by Musical instruments.  ( image above ) .

Sunjata

A deformed woman, named Sogolon, was considered as a woman with magical powers. She was married to King Makhang. She gave birth to a boy who she called Sunjata. He was born with the same problems as his mother, he couldn’t walk since birth. He spent most of his days sitting until he hit puberty. One day he got so angry by a conversation he heard about an insult to his mom that he decided to walk. He demonstrated a lot of strength even though he has a disability. He has courage, humility and filial piety. After he learned how to walk, God blessed him by giving him feet. His mother also had four more sons after Sunjata learned to walk. Sunjata was admired and supported by many people. He later became a great king, surrounding himself with strong warriors and wise counsels. As you go through the story, we can see a very elaborate history from the beginning starting from the ancestors of Sunjata until the part of his transformation from child to man. The repetition of the word “Naamu” which means “yes” or “we hear you” made me realize that while the narrator is telling the story, the people who are listening to this are confirming that they are paying attention and believing what the person is telling about.

According to the text from Early Chinese Literature and Thought, class of poetry consist of three rhyming stanzas of four to six lines with four syllables each. In the next poetry, I will interpret what this poem actually means for me. However, we have to recognize that each poem has a history behind it and other person might perceive it different than me.

1. Plums are Falling. (Pag1324)

In this poetry, I found out the meaning of being selective when the choices presented to you are in abundance. As the lines stated “Plums are falling, seven are the fruits”. There is a natural understanding of how fruits, after they mature, will fall from the trees and only those who are in a good condition will be chosen by us. In terms of who is making the selection, the lines clearly shows how the woman is the one who seems to choose which man she wants. But does she really sound secure about this choice? The quote “Many men want me” is repeated three times. In my opinion, it shows that she’s really confident to say that she doesn’t have problems when it comes to choosing which man she wants to be with. In line 10, page 1324, “Let me be bride of one”, it suggests that she doesn’t actually have the full authority to take the decision by herself. Otherwise, in my opinion, if the line says “I will be the bride of one” then this will make the voice of the woman more powerful. We can interpret that maybe in this time period, women were not allowed to make decisions without someone’s consent.

CXIII. Huge Rat . (Pag 1328)

This poetry is very interesting and emotional in terms of trusting someone else. It characterizes how we do good things for people we know and we get nothing as change. This poetry reveals the senses of taking advantage of someone for a long period of time. “You show no gratitude” (10) “Yet you pay me no need” are one of the main points where it shows how the author had helped this person for long time and he gets nothing in return. Even though the poetry says huge rat, it can be interpreted in different way, such as they utilized rat to represent how dirty or disgusting a person can be when they take advantage of someone. It can also represent how this action can happen when we provide help to a stranger and not knowing if they will just take advantage of that help. There are a total of six paragraphs represented in this poetry and each one of them has 4 lines. The repetitions “Huge rat, Huge Rat” can be seen in paragraph’s one, three and five. On the other hand, we can see how the theme changes in paragraph’s two, four and six with “Happy land, happy realm and happy meadows” found it in line 3.