The Spectacles by Sujata Sahani; translation by Pitambar Naik
- suzannecraig65
- Nov 13, 2022
- 1 min read

The Spectacles
Not because it’s not visible to me from the root of the palm tree
from the wavy paddy fields, the scarecrow calls me with its
dangling hands; one day a white-clad person came to my lamplit
shanty and bowed to touch my feet which had turned to stone.
He doled out a pair of spectacles to my malnourished palms
and said you'll see your thatched house glittering like a
palace through these, only a thumb impression is needed.
I gave him my thumb impression and put on the spectacles
but then my verdant paddy fields resembled a forest doused off;
it disappeared one day and never appeared to me again.
Sitting near the toilet on the train, I left for a far-off land
to see two morsels cook in the vessel; when I returned being
humpbacked, I explored the whitish skyscrapers in my golden
paddy fields and the wide tar roads on the green borders.
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