The feet

(1)

Daily I see a variety of feet,

wearing ‘kulus’ and hennah dyed.

To get the broken straps stiched

when the sandals placed before me,

I saw the gold bright feet.

Auburn hair few seen grown

on the joint of first toe;

raised my head with interest

to see her face beautiful.

Wrinkled face, drooping checks,

lack Lustre eyes and graying hair;

I was shocked at the sight.

Wonder, the very same face

seen several years before

still continues to hesitate

whether to disappear from memory!

It was some thirty years before

I used to sit with tools and bag

near the gate of city college.

To have the shoes polished,

to get the broken straps stitched

several feet used to extend

towards me then; and so now.

Varied shapes, varying colours, variety in sizes,

feet as black as a crow,

ruptured and furrowed at sides,

flat toes, decayed nails and dirty.

(2)

Also lovely feet, sides rosy,

bright nails; just to touch them

whoever won’t he crazy!

Strong feet, so tender pair

I touched several feet

to unfasten sandal’s straps.

When pieces of silver coins,

my charges are dropped

before me, I used to raise

my head and look straight.

This face now I see

has not been seen before?

How once my heart and eyes

had craved to have this vision!

Long and shapely nose,

a mole on chin below

with a long hair curling,

cheeks rosy with profusion of youth

and lips oily with sensuousness.

How in those days

I used to fancy,

a blushing girl in bridal robes

would stand before me.

Her face would be

as beautiful as this lady’s,

her feet would be

as tender as this lady’s,

her feet would be

as tender as this lady’s.

While I slept with her

in the delusion of darkness

I groped her face

fancying she was this lady.

(3)

Still in my inner vision

this face appears as before

without losing its youthfulness

like a flower that never fades

On seeing the face of the woman

who wears the sandals now I stitch

I think of a worn out sandal

dotted with needle holes of Time;

my heart is weeping!

But both her feet

remain wonderfully as before;

their beauty and brightness

fill me with joy.

Earth gives birth and she sustains;

the feet that kiss the earth

will aquire her youthfulness.

Age causes hair to grey,

so face to wrinkle;

but feet will ever remain

with the pink of youth.