Sindhi Woman- Jon Stallworthy

The Poem-
Barefoot through the bazaar,

Jon Stallworthy

and with the same undulant grace
as the cloth blown back from her face,
she glides with a stone jar
high on her head
and not a ripple in her tread.

Watching her cross erect
stones, garbage, excrement, and crumbs
of glass in the Karachi slums,
I, with my stoop, reflect
they stand most straight
who learn to walk beneath a weight.

Summary-

“Sindhi Woman” by Jon Stallworthy is the poet’s description of a Sindhi woman and his appreciation for the way she endures the hardships and boundations of the conservative societies such as the Middle-East, and India. The poet has described the scene in the populous city of Karachi whose slums house people on rather magnanimous levels.

The poet describes a Sindhi woman walking barefoot through the Bazaar. The term bazaar immediately places the reader in a third-world, Middle Eastern market. She walks through the streets with an undulant grace, much like the wave-like motion of the cloth wrapped around her face as the breeze sets it into gentle motion. The women from regions like Sind, were strongly traditional and pertained to orthodox beliefs such as covering their faces when they move out of the house. She glides through the market gracefully with stone jar held high over her head without even a slight ripple in her walk, which amazes the poet. The poet cannot expect her to be well-off since she doesn’t even have slippers in her feet, and still after bearing such compromising situations in her life, that grace on her face fills the poet with utter admiration for the lady.

As he watches the lady cross erect stones, garbage, excrement, and crumbs of glass in the Karachi slums, the poet notices that he has started to stoop, perhaps to get a better view, or because he is tired and unaccustomed to the climate of the country, but the Sindhi woman walks past perfectly straight bearing the load over her head. Amazed by the fact, he reflects that “they stand most straight, who learn to walk beneath a weight”. The poet here means that people who suffer unimaginable hardships in their life, and are crushed by the circumstances and the society, learn to walk straight in the most negative of situations. They have an endurance far more powerful than normal people like us who have lived a far more comfortable life and are truly worth admiring.