WATER, WATER, EVERYWHERE...
Photo by Imleedh Ali on Unsplash
Water has always been a universal symbol of life across
cultures, past and present. Nothing can live without water. As Jacques Yves
Cousteau said it so aptly,
“We forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are
one.”
Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula
of H2O – transparent, odourless, tasteless, colourless, but the significance it
has in all our lives is momentous.
Mythology abounds with water deities. This list is mindbogglingly
long. These gods and goddesses were prominent in civilizations that grew up
next to the sea or ocean, or beside great rivers. A few examples are:
Ashiakle, the
goddess of the treasures at the bottom of the ocean (Africa)
Anuket, the goddess of the Nile, nourisher of the fields
(Egypt)
Nephthys, the goddess of rivers, death, mourning and
night (Egypt)
Mazu, the goddess of the sea and protector of sea farers, (China)
Mizuchi – dragon and
sea god (Japan)
Ahurani – goddess who stands guard over rainfall and
standing water (Persia)
Belisama – the goddess of lakes and rivers, fire, crafts
and light (Celtic)
Freyr – the Norse god of rain, sunlight, fertility, life
and summer (Sweden)
Father Thames – the guardian of the river Thames (UK)
Poseidon – the Olympian god of the sea and the king of
the sea gods (Greek)
These are but the tip of the iceberg. The list continues over
pages.
As far as Hindu mythology goes, the two prominent deities
are Varuna, the god of the oceans, the rains and water, and Indra, the king of
the gods connected with the rain, thunderstorms and clouds. Lord Vishnu’s first
avatar was the Matsya avatar where he took the form of a fish.
India is also home to the Sapthasindhu, or the seven holy
rivers:
The Ganga, the Yamuna, the Saraswati, the Indus (the
Sindhu), the Narmada, the Godavari and the Kaveri, all of whom were revered as goddesses.
“Water is everywhere and in all living things; we cannot
be separated from water. No water, no life. Period. Water comes in many forms –
liquid, vapor, ice, snow, fog, rain, hail. But no matter the form, it’s still
water.”
Robert Fulghum
History and literature are replete with references to
water and its influence. One of the earliest references goes back to the
crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Pontius Pilate was the fifth governor of the Roman
province of Judaea under the Emperor Tiberius, and he was the official who
presided over the trial. After he ordered for the crucifixion of Christ quoting
sedition, he washed his hands in water saying, “I am innocent of the blood of
this righteous person.” Thus, his gesture was symbolic of washing off his sins,
a symbolic cleansing or ablution, as it were, which later led to the phrase “wash
one’s hand of”, meaning to shrug off or absolve oneself from responsibility for
some action or decision.
Pontius Pilate - Instagram
When William Shakespeare wrote his famous tragedy, Macbeth,
he used the same symbolic gesture, that is, that of washing hands to drive home
the guilt people go through when they commit a crime which lives on in their
subconscious. The conniving Lady Macbeth, who urges her husband to commit
regicide, says at the start – “A little water clears us of this deed.”
Once the heinous deed is done, Macbeth declares in Act 2,
Scene 2,
“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean
from my hand?
No, this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas
incarnadine, making the green one red.”
Lady Macbeth also suffers the consequences of the
assassination of King Duncan, as the famous sleepwalking scene reveals. She
incessantly tries to cleanse herself of the vile deed by rubbing her hands
together, muttering,
“Out damn’d spot. Out, I say! One, two! – why, then ‘tis
time to do ‘t.”
The inescapable nature of their crime tie both in a conspiracy
of guilt and remorse, which results in their metaphorically trying to wash away
the bloodstains on their hands as they relive the assassination in a
nightmarish cycle.
During the COVID – 19 years, Gabriela Michele Milkova, a
poet with an MA English (Honours) from St. Andrews University set up a page for
those who felt isolated during the quarantine. She advocated the Lady Macbeth Method
of washing hands till they are squeaky clean.
https://gabrielamichelemilkova.com/dailythought/lady-macbeth-method
Gabriela Milkova - Quarantine Daily Thought - The Lady Macbeth Method
The Jewish blessing also makes use of this gesture of
washing hands as they intone,
“Blessed are you, Source of Life, who makes us holy
through these actions including this washing of the hands” or Netilat Yadayim
which means “taking up of the hands”.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote his poem – ‘The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner’ in which the Mariner’s act of slaying an albatross, the
harbinger of warm winds and calm seas, led to a voyage of suffering and
tragedy. The Mariner was cursed to live with the dead albatross around his neck
and tell his grievous tale to who ever would listen. The other mariners began
dying of lack of water, which led to the lines that are probably the most popular
in the poem.
“Water, water everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.”
The poet uses irony in these lines. There was water all
around, the blue salty water of the ocean, but obviously it was unsuitable to
drink. The idiom ‘albatross around one’s neck’ also came into use from this
poem. It means “a thing that hinders, a heavy burden, a deed that hampers one’s
ability to succeed”.
While looking for references, I came across some
beautiful poems by classic poets waxing eloquent on water.
Going for Water by Robert Frost ends with this evocative
stanza.
“A note as from a single place,
A slender tinkling fall that made
Now drops that floated on the pool,
Like pearls, and now a silver blade.”
Another wonderful offering is by W.B. Yeats.
The Old Men Admiring Themselves in the Water
I heard the old, old men say,
“Everything alters
And one by one we drop away.”
They had hand like claws, and their knees
Were twisted like the old thorn-trees
By the waters.
I heard the old, old men say
“All that’s beautiful drifts away
Like the waters.”
There are so many more illustrative examples in literature.
Sea Calm by Langston Hughes
https://allpoetry.com/Sea-Calm
If I Could Write Words by Spike Milligan
https://allpoetry.com/If-I-Could-Write-Words
The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry
https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/peace-wild-things-0/
And yet another poem which talks sparingly of being awake
at night…
Awake at Night by Matsuo Basho; Translated by Robert Hass
https://allpoetry.com/Awake-at-night
How can a list like this be complete without the exquisite
beauty of Rabindranath Tagore?
When the Two Sisters Go to Fetch Water by Tagore
https://mypoeticside.com/show-classic-poem-30070
Water is the true elixir of life. That is the reason why
so much has been written about its healing qualities. Good clean water is a
boon, and it is essential to adopt a lifestyle in which we do not waste water,
but use it to its fullest. As Sylvia Earle, American marine biologist and
oceanographer put it so tellingly,
“There’s plenty of water in the universe without life,
but nowhere is there life without water.”
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