Poem of the week: Someone Else's Song by Kamala Das

The Indian poet’s fine handling of lyric form and metaphorical language combine powerfully in this elegaic, musical work

‘A million million people, talking all at once’ … worshippers gather at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the Saraswati rivers. Photograph: John McConnico/AP

Carol Rumens

Monday 3 August 2015 

Someone Else’s Song

I am a million, million people
Talking all at once, with voices
Raised in clamour, like maids
At village-wells.

I am a million, million deaths
Pox-clustered, each a drying seed
Someday to be shed, to grow for
Someone else, a memory.

I am a million, million births
Flushed with triumphant blood, each a growing
Thing that thrusts its long-nailed hands
To scar the hollow air.

I am a million, million silences
Strung like crystal beads
Onto someone else’s
Song.

This week’s poem is from Kamala Das’s first poetry collection, Summer in Calcutta (1965). It’s included in the generous selection of her work by Devindra Kohli, published last year under the Penguin Modern Classics imprint. More