Class 10th English : प्रिय विद्यार्थियों, “Mindbloom Study” (#1 Online Study Portal) आपके लिए लाया है Class 10th English Chapter 6 “Once Upon A Time” by Toni Morrison का हिंदी अनुवाद, Summary, Objective And Subjective Questions
INTRODUCTION
Toni Morrison was the eighth woman and the first black woman to receive the Nobel Prize (1993) in Literature. She also won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Her seventh and most recent novel, Paradise was published early in 1998. Her speech ‘Once Upon a Time’ wonderfully exhibits how the proper usage of language could bring about changes and big revolution in the world and more so the immediate surrounding. This speech makes the point that language should be living and vibrant. Narratives have not only been entertaining but also one of the principal ways of absorption of knowledge. There are anecdotes which bring out the theme through the most simple form of expression and language. The given speech is a fine example of this.
ONCE UPON A TIME
“Once upon a time there was an old woman. Blind but wise.” Or was it an old man? A guru, perhaps. Oragriot soothing restless children. I have heard this story, or one exactly like it, in the lore of several cultures.
“Once upon a time there was an old woman. Blind. Wise.”
In the version I know, the woman is the daughter of slaves, black, American, and lives alone in a small house outside of town. Her reputation for wisdom is without peer and without question. Among her people, she is both the law and its transgression. The honour she is paid and the awe in which she is held reach beyond her neighbourhood to places far away; to the city where the intelligence of rural prophets is the source of much amusement.
One day the woman is visited by some young people who seem bent on disproving her clairvoyance and showing her up for the fraud they believe she is. Their plan is simple: they enter her house and ask the one question the answer to which rides solely on her difference from them, a difference they regard as a profound disability: her blindness. They stand before her, and one of them says.
“Old woman, I hold in my hand a bird. Tell me whether it is living or dead.”
She does not answer, and the question is repeated. “Is the bird I am holding living or dead?” Still she does not answer. She is blind and cannot see her visitors, let alone what is in their hands. She does not know their colour, gender or homeland. She only knows their motive.
The old woman’s silence is so long, the young people have trouble holding their laughter.
Finally she speaks, and her voice is soft but stern. I don’t know,” she says. “I don’t know whether the bird you are holding is dead or alive, but what I do know is that it is in your hands. It is in your hands.”
For parading their power and her helplessness, the young visitors are reprimanded, told they are responsible not only for the act of mockery but also for the small bundle of life sacrificed to achieve its aims. The blind woman shifts attention away from assertions of power to the instrument through which that power is exercised.’
Speculation on what (other than its own frail body) that bird in the hand might signify has always been attractive to me, but especially so now, thinking as I have been about work I do that has brought me to this company. So I choose to read the bird as “language” and the woman as a “practiced Writer”.
“Once upon a time…” Visitors ask an old woman a question. Who are they, these children? What did they make of that encounter? What did they hear in those final words: “The bird is in your hands?” A sentence that gestures towards possibility, or one that drops a latch? Perhaps what the children heard was, “It is not my problem. I am old, female, black, blind. What wisdom I have now is in knowing I cannot help you. The future of language is yours.”
They stand there. Suppose nothing was in their hands. Suppose the visit was only a ruse, a trick to get to be spoken to, taken seriously as they have not been before. A chance to interrupt, to violate the adult world, its miasma of discourse about them.
“You, old woman blessed with blindness, can speak the language that tells us what only language can: how to see without pictures. Language alone protects us from the scariness of things with no names. Language alone is meditation.
“Tell us what it is to be a woman so that we may know what it is to be a man. What moves at the margin. What it is to have no home in this place. To be set adrift from the one you knew. What it is to live at the edge of towns that cannot bear your company.
“Tell us about ships turned away from shorelines at Easter, placenta in a field. Tell us about a wagonload of slaves, how they sang so softly their breath was indistinguishable from the failing snow. How they knew from the hunch of the nearest shoulder that the next stop would be their last.
“The inn door opens: a girl and a boy step away from its light. They climb into, the wagon bed. The boy will have a gun in three years, but now he carries a lamp and a jug of warm cider. They pass it from mouth to mouth.
“The girl offers bread, pieces of meat and something more: a glance into the eyes of the one she serves. One helping for each man, two for each woman. And a look. They look back. The next stop will be their last. But not this one. This one is warmed.”
It’s quiet again when the children finish speaking, until the woman breaks into the silence.
“Finally,” she says. “I trust you now. I trust you with the bird that is not in your hands because you have truly caught it. Look, How lovely it is, this thing we have done – together.”
MAIN POINT FOR EXAMINATION
ANSWER QUESTIONS
B.2. Complete the sentences on the basis of the unit you have just studied.
1. A …sentence… that gestures towards possibility.
2. The future of …language… is yours.
3. Language alone …protects us from the… scariness of things with no names.
4. The boy will have …a gun… in three years, but now he carries a lamp and …a jug of warm cider… They pass it from …mouth to mouth…
5. I trust you with the …bird… that is not in your hands because you have …truly caught it…
Q1) Who was the old woman? Where does the old woman live? How is her reputation for wisdom? (बुढ़िया कौन थी? बुढ़िया कहाँ रहती है? बुद्धि के प्रति उसकी प्रतिष्ठा कैसी है?
Answer :– The old woman was blind but wise. The old woman lives alone in a small house outside of town. Her reputation for wisdom is unique and unquestionable. She is both the law and its transgression among her people. (बुढ़िया अंधी थी लेकिन बुद्धिमान थी। बूढ़ी औरत शहर के बाहर एक छोटे से घर में अकेली रहती थी। ज्ञान के लिए उनकी प्रतिष्ठा अद्वितीय और निर्विवाद है। वह अपने लोगों के बीच कानून और उसका उल्लंघन दोनों है।)
Q2) Is this folk lore present in one culture or many? (क्या यह लोक कहानी एक संस्कृति में विद्यमान है या अनेक संस्कृतियों में?
Answer :– This folk lore present in many culture. (यह लोक कथा कई संस्कृतियों में मौजूद है।)
Q3) Who is the father of that old woman? (उस बुढ़िया का पिता कौन है?)
Answer :– The father of the old woman is a black American slave. (बुढ़िया का पिता एक अश्वेत अमेरिकी गुलाम है।)
Q4) What is her position in the neighbourhood? (आस-पड़ोस में उस बुढ़िया की स्थिति क्या है?)
Answer :– She is highly respected in the neighbourhood. She is regarded as a rural prophet among her people. (आस-पड़ोस में उसका बहुत सम्मान किया जाता है। उन्हें अपने लोगों के बीच एक ग्रामीण पैगंबर के रूप में माना जाता है।)
Q5) Why did some young people visit her? (कुछ युवा उससे मिलने क्यों आये?)
Answer :– One day some young people visited her. They wanted to disprove her clairvoyance and show her as a fraud. (एक दिन कुछ युवा उससे मिलने आये। वे उसकी दूरदर्शिता को ग़लत साबित करना चाहते थे और उसे धोखाधड़ी दिखाना चाहते थे।)
Q6) What does the old woman know about those people? (बुढ़िया उन लोगों के बारे में क्या जानती है?)
Answer :– She does not know their colour, gender or homeland. She only knows their motive. (वह उनका रंग, लिंग या मातृभूमि नहीं जानती। वह सिर्फ उनका मकसद जानती हैं।)
Q7) For what are the young visitors are reprimanded? (युवा आगंतुकों को किस बात के लिए फटकार लगायी जाती है?)
Answer :– The young visitors were reprimanded because they thought of the old woman was fraud. (युवा आगंतुकों को फटकार लगाया गया क्योंकि वे लोग बूढ़ी औरत को एक धोखेबाज समझ रहे है।)
Q8) What does ‘bird’ and ‘woman’ signify to the speaker? (वक्ता के लिए ‘पक्षी’ और ‘महिला’ का क्या अर्थ है?)
Answer :– The ‘bird’ in the hand of one of the young visitors signifies ‘language’ and the ‘woman’ who is famous for her wisdom, signifies a “practiced writer”. (युवा आगंतुकों में से एक के हाथ में ‘पक्षी’ ‘भाषा’ का प्रतीक है और ‘महिला’ जो अपनी बुद्धि के लिए प्रसिद्ध है, एक “अनुभवी लेखिका” का प्रतीक है।)
Q9) Enumerate the traits of the old woman. (बूढ़ी औरत के लक्षण गिनाइये।)
Answer :– The old woman is daughter of slaves black American living alone in a small house outside of town. She is blind but wise. The old woman does not feel irritated when some young people visit her and put some questions. When he has repeated the same question she calmly says that she does not know whether the bird is dead or alive. The young visitors even scold her for her such reply, but she does not react. So the old lady has much tolerance and justification. She knows that the young people came to her to prove a fraud but she dealt them very nicely, politely and tactfully. (बूढ़ी औरत अश्वेत अमेरिकी गुलामों की बेटी है जो शहर के बाहर एक छोटे से घर में अकेली रहती है। वह अंधी है लेकिन बुद्धिमान है। जब कुछ युवा लोग उसके पास आते हैं और कुछ प्रश्न पूछते हैं तो बूढ़ी औरत चिढ़ती नहीं है। जब उसने वही प्रश्न दोहराया तो वह शांति से कहती है कि उसे नहीं पता कि पक्षी मर गया है या जीवित है। उसके ऐसे जवाब पर युवा आगंतुक उसे डांटते भी हैं, लेकिन वह कोई प्रतिक्रिया नहीं देती। तो बुढ़िया में बहुत सहनशीलता और औचित्य है। वह जानती है कि युवा लोग धोखाधड़ी साबित करने के लिए उसके पास आए थे लेकिन उसने उनसे बहुत अच्छी तरह, विनम्रता और चतुराई से व्यवहार किया।)
Q10) Do you think that language is crucial to a writer? Give any three reasons. (क्या आपको लगता है कि एक लेखक के लिए भाषा महत्वपूर्ण है? कोई तीन कारण बताइये।)
Answer :– Yes, language is crucial to a writer. It plays a dominant role taking any decision by him. The four reason behind its being crucial may be cited by the following facts. (हां, एक लेखक के लिए भाषा महत्वपूर्ण है। यह उसके द्वारा कोई भी निर्णय लेने में प्रमुख भूमिका निभाता है। इसके महत्वपूर्ण होने के पीछे चार कारण निम्नलिखित तथ्यों द्वारा उद्धृत किए जा सकते हैं —
a) Language is used as mode of communication. The writer’s thought can be communicated through language. (भाषा का प्रयोग संचार के माध्यम के रूप में किया जाता है। लेखक के विचारों को भाषा के माध्यम से संप्रेषित किया जा सकता है।)
b) It gives satisfaction to different curiosities is among the readers. (यह पाठकों के बीच विभिन्न जिज्ञासाओं का समाधान करता है।)
c) It is language that tell us how to see without pictures. (यह भाषा ही है जो हमें बताती है कि चित्रों के बिना कैसे देखा जाए।)
d) Language can be used both as a verse and prose. (भाषा का प्रयोग पद्य और गद्य दोनों रूपों में किया जा सकता है।)
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