An Unknown Girl

An Unknown Girl 

Moniza Alvi

In the evening bazaar

Studded with neon

An unknown girl

Is hennaing my hand.

She squeezes a wet brown line

From a nozzle.

She is icing my hand,

Which she steadies with hers

On her satin-peach knee.

 

In the evening bazaar

For a few rupees

An unknown girl

Is hennaing my hand.

As a little air catches

My shadow-stitched kameez

A peacock spreads its lines

Across my palm.

Colors leave the street

Float up in balloons.

 

Dummies in shop-fronts

Tilt and stare

With their Western perms.

Banners for Miss India 1993,

For curtain cloth

And sofa cloth

Canopy me.

 

I have new brown veins.

In the evening bazaar

Very deftly

An unknown girl

Is hennaing my hand.

I am clinging

To these firm peacock lines

Like people who cling to the sides of a train.

 

Now the furious streets

Are hushed.

I’ll scrape off

The dry brown lines

Before I sleep,

Reveal soft as a snail trail

The amber bird beneath.

It will fade in a week.

 

When India appears and reappears

I’ll lean across a country

With my hands outstretched

Longing for the unknown girl

In the neon bazaar.

 

Moniza Alvi

 

She was from Lahore, Pakistan. She moved with her Pakistani father and British mother to Hatfield, Hertfordshire in England.  She could not revisit her native until her publication of her first work “The Country at My Shoulder”, she was a high-school teacher but now working as a freelance writer and tutor in Norfolk.

 

She received a Cholmondeley Award for her poetry in 2002. In 2014 Moniza Alvi made her debut in the BBC Radio 3 series The Essay-Letters to a Young Poet. 

 Summary of the poem

 The poem speaks about the speaker in the market place getting henna design on her hands by an unknown girl.  The speaker enjoys the design on her hand.  She feels a bondage to the colorful market stalls and the shops around her. She cherishes the moment and wants to hold that moment for ever to become a part of the colorful culture of INDIA. But as the henna design fades slowly, her memories and bondages to this place would diminish and she longs to become a part of the culture always.

 Detail analysis

Lines 1 to 9

“In the evening bazaar

Studded with neon

An unknown girl

Is hennaing my hand.

She squeezes a wet brown line

From a nozzle.

She is icing my hand,

Which she steadies with hers

On her satin-peach knee.”

 

 

In these lines the poet describes the market place where she is getting a henna design on her hand by an unknown girl.  She is in a new city, in an “evening bazar” the bazar or market place is studded with neon lights.  There are many shopping stalls and the place is blazing with neon lights and the people are able to do their shopping comfortably.  The evening is in full swing with the sales.  The poet uses the word “Bazar” to bring out the old fashioned image of a market place to the readers.  Then the poet continues to describe about the unknown girl who does the henna design on her hand with good focus.  She squeezes the henna paste from the tube.  The poet feels the chillness on her hand the henna paste creates. The girl with great attention keeps the speakers hands on her “satin peach knees” and draws the design.  The satin peach refers to her dress.

 

Lines 10 to 18

 “In the evening bazaar

For a few rupees

An unknown girl

Is hennaing my hand.

As a little air catches

My shadow-stitched kameez

A peacock spreads its lines

Across my palm.

Colors leave the street

Float up in balloons.”

 

In the evening bazar the henna girl does the henna for few rupees.  The poet notes and enjoys all the details around her.  She describes about the soft air which catches the shadow of her kameez the traditional dress of India.  She admires the peacock henna design on her hands the lines which run across her palm look as if peacock spreads its wings to dance.  The colorful balloons floats up in the market for sales look as if the colors now leaves the street and floats up to decorate the market place. The descriptions would bring a festive mood to the readers if they note the details.

 

Lines 19 – 25

 

Dummies in shop-fronts

Tilt and stare

With their Western perms.

Banners for Miss India 1993,

For curtain cloth

And sofa cloth

Canopy me.

 These lines express further the surroundings of the speakers.  The dummies in the shop fronts are tilted and placed in such a way, they look as if they tilt their head and staring at the speaker with their western perms.  Banners of Miss India 1993 changed into curtain cloths and sofa cloths. They use the banners for making canopy for the customers to have a little comfort under the shade while they do the shopping.  The speaker speaks about the background very naturally with simple use of language. She also expresses the influence of western culture in Indian streets as she could see the dummies with western hair styles.  The Banners are used as canopy to the stall may mean that the speaker is stating her identity which is a mixture of Western and Eastern culture.

  Lines 26-34

 “I have new brown veins.

In the evening bazaar

Very deftly

An unknown girl

Is hennaing my hand.

I am clinging

To these firm peacock lines

Like people who cling to the sides of a train.”

 The speaker admires the brown veins in her hands which looks beautiful with the peacock henna design.  The girl skillfully and neatly moves her hand and draws the henna design on the speaker’s hand.  She feels she has become more Indian and a part of the great culture which separates her from the rest of the world.  She clings firm to the brown veins like people who cling to the sides of a train. She finds a new identity as a part of the eastern tradition.  But she is not sure as an unknown girl whether she could live with this new identity.  She is between the two cultures.  She couldn’t cling to the root of her culture as she is a mixture of Pakistan and British.  These lines express the speaker’s mental state of confusion.

 Lines 35 – 42

 Now the furious streets

Are hushed.

I’ll scrape off

The dry brown lines

Before I sleep,

Reveal soft as a snail trail

The amber bird beneath.

It will fade in a week.

 Now the street which are busy slowly diminish from her thoughts as the henna in her hands.   She would scrap off the henna paste from her hand and allows the dim brown line design to remain there for few weeks.  They would stay on her soft hands like a snail trail for few weeks and then would start to fade away. The speakers thoughts of being part of the culture and tradition would remain in her thoughts for a few weeks and would fade away and she will return to normal life. she has to go back to her previous life.

Lines 43 – 47

 When India appears and reappears

I’ll lean across a country

With my hands outstretched

Longing for the unknown girl

In the neon bazaar.

 

The concluding part of the poem expresses deep thoughts of the poet. She is back to her normal life, but then and there she recollects the beautiful memories of India.  The thoughts of India appear and reappear and she would lean into them. Her hands outstretched and longing for the unknown girl (herself) in the bazaar which is full of colorful lights. She would search for a past of herself in the Indian market.

 Literary Devices

 Free verse poem with short lines. The tone is emotional of the past, recollecting the memories with a feeling of longing.  The title is quite doubtful about the unknown girl.  Who could the unknown girl?  The question lingers in the minds of the readers. 

 

The theme is shifting between two cultures and the life styles of two different worlds.

 The poet uses the images and stream of consciousness as its main theme to convey her deep feelings for the culture she longs for. 

Alliteration - the word “hennaing my hand” is used to reveal the action.  “My shadow-stitched kameez” the use of alliteration could be seen.

 The images of color is used to bring the colorful culture of India.  Neon colored bazaar, wet new brown veins, satin peach knee, and the amber bird.

 Enjambment – the continuation of the sentence makes the readers to move faster in observation.

 Symbol of peacock represents the national bird of India. “When India appears and reappears” says about the culture and tradition of India which one cannot live without it.

 

Visual images brings the active life of Indian bazaar.” Studded with neon”,  “Shadow-stitched kameez”, she squeezes a wet brown line from a nozzle.”  A peacock spreads its lines across my palm” the poet says about the designs which could bring the image to us.  Dummies in shop-fronts tilt and stare

With their Western perms.

 

Repetition “evening bazaar and unknown girl” the repetition gives an effect.

 Personification is shown in “little air catches”, peacock brown lines, I’ll lean across a country”,   Dummies in shop-fronts, tilt and stare with their Western perms. Banners for Miss India 1993, for curtain cloth and sofa cloth canopy me.”

 Metaphor “brown veins are the henna designs of peacock which shows the culture of India.     

  Simile “cling to the side of train which means of herself who is caught in between two cultures.

 Thus the poem gives the deep thoughts of the poet.  The feelings of the speakers is very much clear to the readers.  She longs for the culture.  She realizes the practical life style of hers.  She could not escape from reality.  She goes back from the present to the future.  Her love for the present fades away for the real future.

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