prepared for a daughter. If the desired son had
been born, the father would not have needed to
dig up the jar of ashes. In the final line of this
stanza, the poet makes clear that the family,
including the mother, has been prepared to do
what would be necessary. Thus, her pregnancy
was not just a time of planning and joyous cele-
bration, as it was also a time of planning for the
possibility that they would murder the child. The
mother knows that murdering the baby is what
the family will do; she has no doubt of the out-
come, even though her words are tinged with
regret.
Stanza 5
The opening line of this stanza reminds readers
that the child is alive, as she makes small noises
and moves against her mother. The kicks and
noises remind the mother of the child’s exis-
tence—but she is a girl, and her fate has been
determined. The infant is powerless against a
tradition that renders girls valueless. The mother-
in-law prays, perhaps for the child, who is not
unloved, just unwanted. The husband’s mother is
not without feeling, but she, too, a female herself,
knows that a baby girl has no value.
The poet repeats the line from the previous
stanza explaining that the family has always
known what they must do and has been prepared
to do it, but this time, the line is a continuation of
the grandmother’s prayer. The husband’s
mother has always known what must be done,
just as her daughter-in-law has known. Thus, in
this stanza readers may imagine that the grand-
mother is also filled with regret that the child
must die. The baby girl is compared to a clay
pot that breaks before it has been fired. There is
no point in finishing the pot; it is worthless. For
many Chinese families—particularly those in
poverty—there may likewise be no point in let-
ting a baby girl grow to become a child, a teen-
ager, or an adult, as she simply cannot be
afforded. She is essentially ‘‘broken,’’ as she has
no value and must be thrown out.
Stanza 6
The mother-in-law is also an ineffectual female.
In a sense, the husband’s mother is as helpless
and has as little value as her newborn grand-
daughter. She uses her powerless mouth to
pray; whether her prayers are intended to save
her granddaughter, perhaps, or to change the
traditions and culture that place no value on
the life of a girl is open to interpretation. The
grandmother is defenseless against this tradition.
She will not prepare a feast to celebrate, and the
rooster will not be killed. The rooster has partic-
ular importance in Chinese culture, as it is one of
the twelve zodiac signs, and rooster blood is
thought to represent good fortune and to signify
a strong life. Roosters also provide good meat,
and so having a rooster slaughtered to eat and
for blood to drink would be an important cele-
bration for the birth of a boy. Since there is
nothing to celebrate with the birth of a girl, the
rooster’s life is spared—while the life of the baby
girl will be forfeit.
The third line of this stanza again tells read-
ers that a baby girl is like a clay pot that is broken
and never completed. This time the line ends
with a colon, and so the following line builds
upon a phrase that in the previous stanza made
clear that a baby girl is as unfinished and worth-
less as a broken pot. Here, women are compared
to wood and sand from a river, both of which are
bendable and malleable. River sand constantly
shifts and reforms to redirect the river’s flow.
Wood is porous and easily bent, but it is also
easily repaired because it is supple and flexible.
Thus, perhaps, unlike the rigid traditions that
place no value on females, women are pliable
and can adapt when called upon to do so. On
the other hand, the reference to sand and wood
can also be understood to mean that even adult
women are perceived as less than human—as no
more than the sum of the clay used to make the
pot and the wood burned to fire it.Stanza 7
The opening line of this stanza reminds readers
that there will be no celebration at the birth of
the baby girl. The husband is in a hurry, now. He
has the ashes and is ready to kill the baby, but he
frowns. This is perhaps meant to assuage his wife’s
misery, or, as would be indicated by the way the
second line continues into the third line, he may be
frowning because he is unhappy to be doing what
he is doing; in order to do what he believes he must
do, he must pretend that he believes that women
are of so little value that the killing of an infant
daughter is justified. Meanwhile, the mother’s milk
has dampened the bed. The nuzzling of the infant
against her mother and the soft sounds of hunger
caused the mother’s breast milk to flow, but the
child is not receiving that milk. The poet laments
the waste—the waste of nurturing milk and, with
the child about to be killed or already killed, the
waste of the child’s life.Pantoun for Chinese Women