Sunday, September 18, 2011

A Street Play as Seen by a Woman

The play begins

When the crowd of men

Forms a garland of bodies

Around it,

She can watch it

Only through the slit in the crowd,

And smell life

From the action of the actor

Who plays the drunkard.

She can hear roaring laughs,

And the cries of women

And make a play

Out of each hazy sight

And each stuttering dialogue

An absurd drama

Throbbing with life

Of hearsay

And slit-vision

With legs straining on false legs

And dresses hked up.

Indian Literature-July-August 2008, page 58

Original in Malayalam: Ajit

Translation : C.S.Venkiteswaran