An Unknown Girl
• It is ‘evening’ and the scene is set in a ‘bazaar’ (market), which gives a sense
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 shadwow-stiched kameez
a peacock spreads its lines
across my palm.
Colours 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 the 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
of the exotic.
• The bazaar is ‘studded with neon’. The onomatopoeic verb ‘studded’ creates
an impression of ‘neon’ lights piercing the natural darkness.
• ‘An unknown girl / is hennaing’ the persona’s hand. Henna is a tropical
shrub. The ‘unknown girl’ is using the reddish dye from its shoots and leaves
to decorate the persona’s hand – a traditional art. The fact the girl is
‘unknown’ makes her appear mysterious.
• The verb ‘squeezes’ is onomatopoeic, underlining the almost sensual action of
extracting the dye from its tube. Our senses are again appealed to, this time
our sense of touch, as we learn the dye is ‘wet’.
• The persona uses a metaphor to describe this experience: ‘She is icing my
hand’. This metaphor underlines the concept that hennaing is an art form –
the persona certainly feels that she is being decorated.
• The ‘unknown girl’ has a ‘satin-peach knee’. Again, a sensual image is used.
• The ‘unknown girl’ practises her art ‘for a few rupees’. Rupees are the chief
monetary unit of India, and so the exotic scene is clearly set in India.
• It appears that the persona could be wearing traditional Indian clothing (‘my
shadow-stitched kameeze), which adds to the idea that she wants to immerse
herself in this different culture.
• ‘A peacock spreads its lines / across [her] palm’. The ‘unknown girl’ is
hennaing an image of a peacock onto the persona’s hand. This image is
particularly appropriate as the (female) peacock is a similar colour to the dye,
and is the national bird of India.
• This is followed by another metaphor: ‘Colours leave the streets / float up in
balloons’. We gain a sense of time passing as the streets are becoming darker.
• The traditional images of India created so far are contrasted with more
modern images: ‘Dummies in shop-fronts / tilt and stare / with their Western
perms.’ Why are they ‘staring’?
• We are made aware of exactly when the persona is experiencing the hennaing:
‘Banners for Miss India 1993’. Again, this is a more modern image of India,
somewhat at odds with the traditional images previously created.
• The persona states that she has ‘new brown veins’. This metaphor implies
that the traditional Indian culture has become a part of her now.
• The ‘unknown girl’ continues to henna the persona’s hand ‘very deftly’. This
underlines the former’s skill.
• A simile is used: ‘I am clinging / to these firm peacock lines / like people who
cling to the sides of a train’. This simile makes us imagine that the persona is
desperate to hold onto her experience. The image of people ‘clinging to the
sides of a train’ would have been common in India.
• We again become aware of time passing as ‘the furious streets / are hushed’
and the persona ‘scrape[s] off / the dry brown lines / before [she] sleeps’.
• Once the ‘dry brown lines’ have been removed the image of an ‘amber bird’ is
revealed. This is ‘soft as a snail trail’. The simile and the assonant ‘a’
combine to make us aware of the ‘soft’ nature of the henna.
• This image will ‘fade in a week’; however, the persona’ memory of this
experience will not.
• The persona claims that ‘when India appears and reappears’, presumably in
her dreams, she’ll ‘lean across a country / with [her] hands outstretched /
longing for the unknown girl / in the neon bazaar’. This proves that she wants
to ‘cling’ to her experience.
Form and Structure
• This narrative poem is written as free verse.
Comparative Ideas
• This poem is about a memorable experience so it might usefully be compared
with Miracle on St David’s Day, Death of a Naturalist, The Barn, Mid-Term
Break…
• As a specifically feminine experience, it might be compared with Still I Rise,
Warning, I Shall Pain my Nails Red, Mirror…