In the beginning
my whole body was covered with skin
hard as rock. Then he came
and his mouth was a river
running over me, cool and quick
with small, silver fish.
Night after night
he shaped me
and smoothed me
down
to my velvet
bones.
*
Now, I bathe while he watches,
feel his eyes,
fireflies on my skin.
I bend over,
my hair, a curtain of water
between us.
I let him towel me dry,
his strokes soft at first, then brisk,
like a cloth shining a lamp.
Water drips down
my back. He grasps the rope
of my hair and climbs.
Notes on this poem
The Courtesan’s Reply is a sequence of original poems inspired by M Ghosh’s translation from the Sanskrit of the Caturbhani, four monologue plays written around 300 BC on the life of courtesans in India.
In the original plays, a narrator walks through the courtesans’ quarter, commenting on the women he meets and engaging them in a one-sided conversation. I enjoyed the sensuality, charm and formality of Ghosh’s prose immensely, but more than that, I was captivated by the courtesans glimpsed through the filter of the narrator. My intention was to give them a voice, and although I began by staying loyal to Ghosh’s translation, I found that the courtesans wanted to say ‘no, it was not like that, it was like this.’
The first two poems, ‘Sixty-four Arts’ and ‘The Days of Chandragupta Maurya’ emerged out of research into the period of the Caturbhani.
