The short summary of the poem "The First Book" by Amrita Pritam

 "The First Book"  by  Amrita Pritam 

I was there—And perhaps you as well,

Standing perhaps a breath away,

Perhaps perched in the darkness of a vision,

Perhaps moving on a turning point of consciousness,

But that was a tale of prehistoric times.

That was our existence, yours and mine,

Which became the first language of the world.

Words were coined to identify me,

Words were coined to identify you,

And they wrote in that first language, their first book.

That was our tryst, yours and mine,

We slept on a bed of stones,

And our eyes, lips and finger tips,

Became the words of your body and mine.

They then made translations of this first book.

The Rig Veda was compiled much later.

Summary and analysis 

Amrita Pritam was an Indian novelist essayist and poet who wrote in Punjabi and in Hindi. She is considered the first prominent female Punjabi poet, novelist and the leading twentieth century essayist of the Hindi language . She produced over hundred books of poetry, fiction, biographies and an autobiography that were all translated into several Indian and foreign languages ."The First Book" is one of the famous poem of Amrita Pritam.

 The poet begins the poem by telling, a tale of prehistoric period.  In first stanza we can see two people standing together very closely, perhaps sitting in the darkness of vision, perhaps in a turning point to discover something with consciousness. So according to the poem  we can understand that the early people were humbling to get something which is very important and necessary .

In second stanza, we'll get to know that prehistoric people had a vision to discover a language, which is to converse each other and to understand each other and to show the existence of people and to share feelings,  they began to  use certain words which also were coined to identify each other .Those words became language and from that first language they wrote the first book.

In third stanza the poet tells how the prehistoric people use to communicate each other. In the poem, the speaker says, that they used to sleep on a bed of stones and their eyes, lips, finger tips became the words of their body and then this body gestures were translated and their first book was written. After that 'Rig Veda' which is called as the first book compiled much later according to the poet.

Analysis 

In this poem we can see only one way communication, because there is no reply from the other side in the poem. We define two people in the poem they might be a male and female and the narrator could be one either in male or female.

In another perspective we can also say that 'The First Book' is also a Love poem.The word 'tryst' which means 'romantic rendezvous between lovers' encourage to decide that this is a love poem. 

In the poem the lovers were standing a breath away to share their feelings but they couldn't do it , because they didn't know any language to converse, they were in the darkness of vision and on a turning point of consciousness to search something. And this was the situation of prehistoric period. 

 But the lovers in the poem wanted to break the silence, so, they  invented their own words . Some words are created to identify male and some words for female and with that new language the lovers wrote, and that became the first book .

Then they wanted to clear their thirst of love through conversation. They used to sleep on a bed of stones and they used their eyes, lips and fingertips as a communication tools.Their body signals became the words in prehistoric time, just through eye contact and through body gestures they used to speak. Then these signals of body were translated into words and into book ,but 'Rigveda' compiled later.

Through this poem the poet tried to convey the importance of the language, eagerness of lovers to converse and to share feelings and identify each other and of good relationship.