An old woman grabs
hold of your sleeve
and tags along. .
She wants a fifty paise coin.
She says she will take you
to the horseshoe shrine.
You’ve seen it already.
She hobbles along anyway
and tightens her grip on your shirt
She won’t let you go.
You know how old women are.
They stick to you like a burr.
You turn around and face her
with an air of finality.
You want to end the farce.
When you hear her say,
‘What else can an old woman do
on hills as wretched as these?’
You look right at the sky.
Clear through the bullet holes
she has for her eyes.
And as you look on,
the cracks that begin around her eyes
spread beyond her skin.
And the hills crack.
And the temples crack.
And the sky falls
With a plate-glass clatter
Around the shatterproof crone
who stands alone
And you are reduced
to so much small change
in her hand
http://www.geocities.com/kavitayan/arun_kolatkar.html
You look right at the sky
Clear through the bullet-holes
She has for eyes.
The old woman’s eyes are just two gaping holes filled with empty air,with the hills and the sky.Then the cracks begin around her eyes ,spreading beyond her skin and then the hills crack, the temples crack and the sky cracks and the the sky finally shatters and falls like plate-glass. The old woman herself is shatter-proof and nothing happens to her .Only you get instantly reduced to small change in her hand .It is you who shatter because her eyes are already bullet-holes which are formed with cracks around the holes.
Apparently,the old woman is a self-appointed tourist guide out to make a few quick bucks from the unsuspecting sight-seer,a person common enough in all tourist spots. But the way she stands “shatterproof” while all around her the hillscape crumbles, makes you understand that she is as old as the hills, very much a part of it and if the hills don’t exactly draw their sustenance from her, would at least lose their significance without her.The clever city-slick is so much putty in her hands.
This poem shows the contrast between the urbanity and the mysticism in Jejuri. The temples and the hills are empty and soulless because they have stripped an old woman of her sustenance. The shallowness of religion and the hollow beauty of nature can be seen through her “bullet hole” eyes.
How right you are ! As somebody has already said the poem has a lot of things to say to different people and the essential beauty of the poem remains intact whatever be the interpretation .Thanks
Thanks for your very perceptive comment
Great poem. The character that comes out of the poem is excellent and magnificient. Her way of approaching that man and the reaction and helplessness of the person is something that leads you to make so many meanings out of the text.
[...] ‘An Old Woman’ ‘The Butterfly’ ‘Yeshwant Rao’ ‘A Low Temple’, ‘The Horseshoe Shrine’, ‘The Pattern’, ‘The Manohar’ and ‘A Scratch’ ‘The Pattern’ and ‘Chaitanya’ [...]
[...] ‘An Old Woman’ ‘The Butterfly’ ‘Yeshwant Rao’ ‘A Low Temple’, ‘The Horseshoe Shrine’, ‘The Pattern’, ‘The Manohar’ and ‘A Scratch’ ‘The Pattern’ and ‘Chaitanya’ [...]
The poem reflects an environ of a mystic and spiritual quest undertaken by the urban man who is concerned about the place and its structural terrain. but one look into the hollow eyes of the crone has left him reduced or philosophically humbled signifying the moral strength of the frail woman.
Thank you for the insightful comments
the poem brings out the harsh reality n general approach towards it.the person goes to the temple to seek divine blessings.but does not know how he can appease his several brothers waiting for their brothers at god’s doorsteps.to be humane is one way.to pray to god. the beggar at the door is aware what she wants and how to earn it. but the poet knows the reality through her. that is how everything cracks around .he is exposed to the bitter reality and feels reduced before her stature.