The Literary Analysis of Lene Ododomu's The Interpreter by Elizah Christian

THE LITERARY ANALYSIS OF LENE ODODOMU'S THE INTERPRETER BY ELIZAH CHRISTIAN

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   The Poem (The Interpreter)

Like a thief waiting 

For the house owner to sleep,

My Lord is waiting for his bribe.

My Lord has given hope to the offender

Since he is ready to feed the gods.

My Lord has already told the clerk, 

Danladi to arrange where

 To keep the bags of money.

My Lord has told the other ministers 

In the temple of justice to  support

 The judgement in favour of the offender.

With the concrete evidence

 Gathered against the offender,

My Lord is still quotating section 20 

Sub-section 29 of the constitution

In the electoral Act all because he knows

 The in and out of the law to cover up

 The fake judgement he plans to deliver.

The plaintiff put all hands on deck

To gather concrete evidence

And happiness dances with them,

But My Lord is planning to use

 His intellectual mind

 To manipulate the judgement.

He has the heart of stone

Because he is a guru of the law,

So he is bold to pervert the judgement

And nobody can review it

 Outside the court room.

My Lord, all what I said

 Are just imaginations of the future.

But for the sake of the innocent people,

My Lord, call a spade a spade.

You are the interpreter, My Lord.

You are a Lion that sit on the throne

In the jungle to interpret the law,

So hit the nail on the head,

So that the stolen mandate can be retrieved.

Don't let money control you

Like a slave master

Controlling his slaves, My Lord.

SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS OF THE POEM

In this poem, Lene Ododmu is bringing out the point that, despite all the genuine evidence provided by the plaintiffs, the judge is still using his intellectual capability to pervert the judgement.

     "But my lord is planning to use his intellectual mind to manipulate the judgement" (L. 22-24).

       The poet, who is also the petitioners' lawyer is pleading with the judge to say something in frank and sincerity, and to favour the judgement in accordance with the choice of the masses. The poet called the judge "a lion that sit on the throne

In the jungle to interpret the law

So hit the nail on the head". The poet want the judge to say the truth and to restore the stolen mandate of the people.

In the first stanza

      In line 1-11: " like a thief waiting

For the house owner to sleep,

My Lord is waiting for his bribe."( Sta.1, L.1-3)

     In these lines, the Poetic personnel is comparing my lord (judge) to a thief. He is making us to understand that the lord is waiting to collect bribe before he can judge the case filed in the court of law. " My Lord has given hope to the offender

     Since he is ready to feed the gods"(L.4-5)

      In these lines,  the lord is being unjust by giving hope or support to the offender or accused individual since he is ready to give money (bribe) to gods. That is the judges in the court. 

    " My Lord has already told the clerk 

Danladi to arrange where to keep the bags of money". (L.6-8)

This means the money has already been brought to the Court, so the judge told the clerk ( one who assist the judge in such matters as research, writing and analysis) " danladi", the clerk's name, to prepare a place for them to keep the money( bribe). The judge has told the other judges to favour the judgement to the offender "ministers in the position of justice",  that is, men who are in position to judge, to favour the judgement to the offender because of the money he has give them has a bribe.

In the second stanza

      In line 12-18: in these lines, the judge is being biased by trying to fake  the judgment despite all the real and reasonable evidence provided by the plaintiffs against the offender. " My Lord is still quoting section 20

Sub-section 29 of the constitution

In the electoral act all because he knows

The in and out of the law to cover up." It's from these lines we can understand that the filed case in the court is an election case. According to the poet, the judge being a guru in law, is trying to favour the offender by quoting from the electoral act to favour the judgement he has planned to deliver.

In the third stanza

      In line 19-29:" the plaintiffs put all hands on deck

   To gather concrete evidence

And happiness dances with them". In these lines , the Poetic personnel is saying the plaintiffs (the complaints) have come together to gather reasonable, tangible and real evidence against their offender and they are happy for that. 

"But my lord is planning to use

His intellectual mind

To manipulate the judgement

He has the heart of stone

Because he is a guru of law". Here the Poetic personnel is saying of all the real evidence provided at court by the plaintiffs, the judge is still planning to use his sound legal knowledge to manipulate the result, because he is a genius in law. "So he is bold to pervert the judgement

And nobody can review it

Outside the Court room."  In these lines, the judge who is constitutionally vested with the power to interpret the law and being a genius in law is bold enough to turn the judgement against the plaintiffs and nobody has the power to revoke his judgement outside the Court room.

 

In the last stanza (fourth stanza)

      In line 30-41: 

"My Lord all what I said

Are just imagination for the future

But for the sake of the innocent people

My Lord call a spade a spade". (L.30-33)

        In these lines, we can realize that the Poetic personnel himself is a lawyer ( a lawyer in support of the plaintiffs) by directly talking to the lord himself, "my Lord all what I said

Are just imagination for the future". So the Poetic personnel ( petitioner's lawyer) is pleading with the judge that for the sake of the masses who are in serious support for for the plaintiffs, that he should "call a spade a spade", that is, he should be quite frank and outspoken in his judgement.

      "You are the interpreter, my lord

You are a lion that sit on the throne

In the jungle to interpret the Law

So hit the nail on the head".(L. 34-37)

     In these lines, the Poetic personnel ( the petitioners' lawyer) is pleading with the judge and telling him his position has an interpreter of the law, he called him a lion sitting on the throne to control others and to interpret the Law." So hit the nail on the head", that is, to judge the case is sincerity, in transparency and with accordance to the law without bias.

   " So that the stolen mandate can be retrieved".

Here the petitioners' lawyer (the Poetic personnel) wants the judge to be upright in his judgement, so that the stolen mandate will be restored to the people.

     "Don't let money control you

Like a slave master

Controlling his slaves, my lord".

   The poet is finally telling the judge not to be controlled by money. In the last two lines, he shouldn't be a slave to money instead he should be in control of money.

[3/14, 8:11 PM] Christian: Poetic devices

1) The use of simile:

     " Like a thief waiting"(L.1)

"Like a slave master"(L.40)

The above similes referred to the judge as a corruptible judge waiting for bribery from the offender to favour him.

2) The use of synecdoche: This is a figure of speech in which a part stands for a whole stand for a part.

    " All hands on deck" (L.19), "hands" represent the plaintiffs who come together to gather concrete evidence against the Court.

3) The use of metaphor: 

      "You are a lion that sit on the throne"(L.35). This is referring to the position of the judge in the court like a lion, and he should settle the case in the exact provisions of the constitution

4) The use of repetition: my Lord is repeated severally. In line 3, 4, 6, 9, 14, 22, 30, 33, 34, 41. It's used for addressing the judge in the court 

  

Etc.

THEMES:

1) The theme of corruption 

2) Theme of injustice 

3) Theme of Perception 

4) Theme of oppression 

5) theme of stolen mandate

6) theme of irrevocable judgement of the law

THE SETTING:

The setting of the poem Nigeria. There are judges in the court room trying to favour the offender in their judgement, there are  petitioner's lawyers in the court room pleading with the judge to be sincere in his judgement, there is also the presence of the clerk.

PHYSICAL EXPLANATION/MODERN REALITY

The physical explanation of the poem is the presentation of the outcome of the election that was conducted on the 25 of February 2023 in the court of law. The offender who is being dragged to the court in the poem, is Baba bola Ahmed tinubu of the all progressive congress (APC), and the plaintiffs in the poem was the opposition parties, Atiku Abubakar from the People's democratic party ( PDP), and Peter Obi from the labour party (LP). The two opposing presidential candidates are not in alignment with the declaration of Baba Ahmed tinubu as the winner of the election by the INEC chairman, Mahmood yakubu . According to the opposing candidates, the election was fully rigged in favour of the APC presidential candidate (Tinubu). Because of that, they take him to court of appeal in the capital city of Nigeria, Abuja, and file a case against him that he didn't win the election and have stolen their mandate. According to the poet ( LENE ODODMU), the judges in the Court are also trying to fake the judgement against the opposing parties despite all genuine and concrete evidence provided by them in the court of law. And the opposition parties are pleading with the court to judge the case without regards for money and without compromise because 

they win the election and they want their mandate back.

THE STRUCTURE OF THE POEM

The poem is made up of four stanzas. The first stanza is talking about how the judges are trying to favour the offender because of bribery.

    " My Lord is waiting for his bribe

My Lord has given hope to the offender (L. 3-5) since he is ready to feed the gods.

Both the second and the third stanza, is the provision of concrete evidence of the plaintiffs against the offender. " With concrete evidence

Gather against the offender "( sta. 2, L.12-13).

" The plaintiffs put all hands on deck to gather concrete evidence ( sta.3, L. 19-20). But the court was still trying to fake the judgement against the plaintiffs.

The final stanza ( fourth stanza), the petitioners' lawyer was pleading with the court to give the right judgement without compromise

" My Lord call a spade a spade"( L.33)

"To hit the nail on the head"(L. 37) ".

They were telling him to be sincere and not to be controlled by money.