Muliebrity by Sujata Bhatt. This term, from Latin, means womanhood. A feminine version of virility, if you may. Bhatt uses this unusual expression in the description of a woman involved in something rather mundane, albeit vital — gathering cow dung. The exuberance and involvement with which the woman goes about her task is what shapes the narrative of the poem. “… I have thought so much and have been unwilling to use her for a metaphor, for a nice image- but most of all unwilling to forger her or to explain to anyone the greatness and power glistening through her cheekbones each time she found a particularly promising mound of dung —“( Muliebrity ).
The Ahmedabad-born Sujata Bhatt spent her formative years in Pune and then moved to the United States. Germany is her country of residence now. Translations (German and Gujarati), poetry and academics – all these are part of the poet’s body of work.
Greatness and power and collecting cow dung? There hardly seems a connection and yet, there is strength and grace in an activity that many would give no thought to, perhaps even be repelled by. Many of Bhatt’s poems reflect this state of celebratory womanhood. In White Asparagus , the poet writes, “Who speaks of the strong currents streaming through the legs, the breasts of a pregnant woman in her fourth month?” The poem goes on to speak of the woman’s desire for her man and uses the asparagus to explain – “And the hunger/raw obsessions beginning/ with the shape of asparagus:/ sun-deprived white and purple-shadowed-veined…/
As is the case with many multi-cultural poets, Bhatt’s poems reflect cultural conflicts and identities. I am drawn towards her preoccupation with language and its uses. In fact, one of her most famous poems is Search for My Tongue . The poem has been performed in prestigious venues as a dance recital. Bhatt asks, “ …what would you do if you had two tongues in your mouth…” She speaks of how they can’t be used together and even spitting out the mother tongue that has rotted away because of lack of use, doesn’t work. She finds it has grown back, stronger. This reassures her, “Everytime I think I’ve forgotten, I think I’ve lost my mother tongue, it blossoms out of my mouth.”
The feeling of displacement, the concerns at the possibility of losing one’s birth identity are seen vividly, not just here but in many of her other poems as well.
Bhatt’s work is often described as sensuous and in The Stinking Rose , we see just how apt the description is. The garlic is the rose, the stinking rose that “… will sing to your heart/ to your slippery muscles.” The poem moves from the peeling of the garlic to the woman’s body, as though the act of touching her were akin to that of releasing the particular fragrance of the stinking rose.
Her writing is not florid or ornate – it is story telling at its simplest. Simple is sophisticated, to paraphrase a popular quote and this is seen in her writing. The language is unpretentious and grammar never subsumes emotion – rightly so.
Many of her poems, for instance ŁódŸ , Muliebrity and White Asparagus end with a dash, not a full stop. Maybe Bhatt believes that there is a sense of continuity in all writing, all formed into one eternal and emotional cycle.
Srividya is a published poet. Read her work at www.rumwrapt
.blogspot.com
