8/7/2019 presauntpak
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Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan
They sent me a salwar kameez
peacock-blue,glistening like an orange split open,embossed
slippers, gold and black
points curling.Candy-striped glass bangles
snapped, drew blood.Like at school, fashions changed
in Pakistan the salwar bottoms were broad and stiff,
then narrow.My aunts chose an apple-green sari,
silver-bordered
for my teens.
I tried each satin-silken top was alien in the sitting room.
I could never be as lovelyas those clothes
I longedfor denim and corduroy.
My costume clung to meand I was aflame,
I couldnt rise up out of its fire,half-English,
unlike Aunt Jamila.
I wanted my parents camel-skin lamp switching it on in my
bedroom,
to consider the crueltyand the transformation
from camel to shade,marvel at the colours
like stained glass.
My mother cherished her jewellery Indian gold, dangling,
filigree.
But it was stolen from our car.The presents were radiant in my
wardrobe.
My aunts requested cardigansfrom Marks and Spencers.
My salwar kameezdidnt impress the schoolfriend
who sat on my bed, asked to seemy weekend clothes.
But often I admired the mirror-work,tried to glimpse myself
in the miniatureglass circles, recall the story
how the three of ussailed to England.
Prickly heat had me screaming on the way.I ended up in a cot
in my English grandmothers dining room,
found myself alone,playing with a tin boat.
I pictured my birthplacefrom fifties photographs.
When I was olderthere was a conflict, a fractured land
throbbing through newsprint.Sometimes I saw Lahore
my aunts in shaded rooms,screened from male visitors,
sorting presents,
wrapping them in tissue.
Or there were beggars, sweeper-girlsand I was there
of no fixed nationality,staring through fretwork
at the Shalimar gardens.
By Moniza Alvi
8/7/2019 presauntpak
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Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan
By Moniza Alvi
Theme
This poem is about cultural identity and it explores the issue
of being torn betweentwo cultures by the poets experience of
receiving ethnic clothing from her relativesin Pakistan. The
traditional clothes are described carefully in order to express
theirdifference from British clothing. The glass bangle that drew
blood is an imageused to show that the speaker feels uncomfortable
trying on her presents fromPakistan. She mentions feeling alien,
half-English and having no fixed nationalitywhich are direct
statements about the poets conflict of identity.
The poet left Pakistan as a very young child and she does not
really know what thecountry is like. She is left imagining her
identity through old photographs and thetraditional Asian clothes
her aunts have sent her.
Structure and language
The poet uses both similes and metaphors in the poem to describe
both the clothesand the narrators feelings when she tries them on.
The poem is also written in thefirst person which helps give it a
confessional, wistful tone. the poem also has anarrative structure
and tells a story of living in an alien culture. The poet haschosen
to write in free verse and without a rhyming scheme in order to
give the
poem its natural feeling.
Message
The poet suggests that it is possible (like her) to be torn
between cultures and toexperience problems of cultural identity as
a result.
Quote
I tried each satin-silken top-was alien in the sitting room
I could never be as lovely as those clothes.
Link
Search for My Tongue
