Girl Jamaica Kincaid
Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone
heap; wash the color clothes on Tuesday and put them on the clothesline to dry;
don’t walk bare-head in the hot sun; cook pumpkin fritters in very hot sweet
oil; soak your little cloths right after you take them off; when buying cotton
to make yourself a nice blouse, be sure that it doesn’t have gum in it, because
that way it won’t hold up well after a wash; soak salt fish overnight before
you cook it; is it true that you sing benna in Sunday school?; always eat your
food in such a way that it won’t turn someone else’s stomach; on Sundays try to
walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming; don’t sing
benna in Sunday school; you mustn’t speak to wharf-rat boys, not even to give directions;
don’t eat fruits on the street—flies will follow you; but I don’t sing benna on
Sundays at all and never in Sunday school; this is how to sew on a button; this
is how to make a buttonhole for the button you have just sewed on; this is how
to hem a dress when you see the hem coming down and so to prevent yourself from
looking like the slut I know you are so bent on becoming; this is how you iron
your father’s khaki shirt so that it doesn’t have a crease; this is how you
iron your father’s khaki pants so that they don’t have a crease; this is how
you grow okra—far from the house, because okra tree harbors red ants; when you
are growing dasheen, make sure it gets plenty of water or else it makes your
throat itch when you are eating it; this is how you sweep a corner; this is how
you sweep a whole house; this is how you sweep a yard; this is how you smile to
someone you don’t like too much; this is how you smile to someone you don’t
like at all; this is how you smile to someone you like completely; this is how
you set a table for tea; this is how you set a table for dinner; this is how
you set a table for dinner with an important guest; this is how you set a table
for lunch; this is how you set a table for breakfast; this is how to behave in
the presence of men who don’t know you very well, and this way they won’t
recognize immediately the slut I have warned you against becoming; be sure to
wash every day, even if it is with your own spit; don’t squat down to play
marbles—you are not a boy, you know; don’t pick people’s flowers—you might
catch something; don’t throw stones at blackbirds, because it might not be a
blackbird at all; this is how to make a bread pudding; this is how to make
doukona; this is how to make pepper pot; this is how to make a good medicine
for a cold; this is how to make a good medicine to throw away a child before it
even becomes a child; this is how to catch a fish; this is how to throw back a
fish you don’t like, and that way something bad won’t fall on you; this is how
to bully a man; this is how a man bullies you; this is how to love a man, and
if this doesn’t work there are other ways, and if they don’t work don’t feel
too bad about giving up; this is how to spit up in the air if you feel like it,
and this is how to move quick so that it doesn’t fall on you; this is how to
make ends meet; always squeeze bread to make sure it’s fresh; but what if the
baker won’t let me feel the bread?; you mean to say that after all you are
really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won’t let near the bread? ♦
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