Daughter + Mother = Carrie + Debbie & "After Dinner Refreshments, Anyone?"

“After Dinner Refreshments, Anyone?”

(Guests Effervescing Over Their Hostess):

Your hair always captivated us,

Today we want to kiss your hands,

For you have laid out such delicious dishes

On the dining table!

We are amazed and do not know where to begin,

It is amazing that although you have

So many other responsibilities and engagements,

You still spend so many hours in the kitchen!

Servants must be hard to find

Especially when cooks are notorious for their ill tempers.

Oh! Too much!

For you to have cooked such delicious food,

It is just miraculous!

But the thing of most amazement is

That after laboring all day long,

There is not a crease upon your forehead!

Compared to this dinner, the one we

Attended last week at the house of a

Respected community leader and his wife

Was nothing!

(Hostess’s Inner Dialogue):

Thanks. Thank you very much for your appreciation.

And now, please select what I may present to you next:

Tea, Coffee, or my poetry?

Parveen Shakir (24 November 1952 - 26 December 1994)

Translated from the Urdu by M.S. Alverston, 02/26/11.