Othello Shall not Lament- Monalisa Joshi

E X C L U S I V E

Othello Shall not Lament

Thecasementsofthatkaputmansion, Shallopenagain,andthezephyrof fall, Shallflowfromthesighoftheold king, Eachyeartheautumncomestomy dwelling, Inmeasuredfootsteps,whentheold king, Andqueensittingatthehighest throne, Decidestolendsomeofittomy broken, Hearth,Istandforthemthe vagabond, Whocouldn’triseastheirroyalblooMonalisaJoshid! IchoseOthello,apariah,arogue in, Theireyes,tofallinlovewith,as myman, Whocouldteartheskiesand shake! EventhethronesofGodssitting inthe, Seventhheaven,hehadtheheart ofiron, ForwhomIlostmineaway,I standasthe, Traitortotheoldkingandqueen, butthe, Autumntheycouldn’ttrapto reachme,

It flows each year from those walls, The one season that still holds some part, Of my presence there, they offered me, The silks and gold, the sparkles and gems, All would be mine, but to leave Othello, And be the virgin Desdemona of their kind, That night I ran away into my lover’s arms, And never turned back, he fought with one, Hand holding mine, one doing bloodshed, We walked out of those citadels bathed in, The blood of my kin, I didn’t shed a tear, For that I still remain a perpetrator, The autumn now seldom brings news of the, Land where prevails eternal autumn, The foliage, the precincts they all stand lifeless, And the parapets that once were pride of the old king, Bear unmendable cracks, I listen to the silent plights, Yet my obligations are towards Othello who, Took the swords of myriad sovereigns upon his, Torso that night yet smiled, thus I shall serve him, Till my last fall here on earth, this time I shall live, Alongside him, for none can fill the ears of my lover, And he shall not be the one to murder me and lament, I shall not die in his arms; my innocence is what he loves. RAISON D’ETRE

What if history of a literature repeats itself and you feel that you have become one of those characters from one of Shakespeare’s Play. Desdemona is a story of a woman who carries the reflection of myriad such women who acquired the courage to go against their patriarchal family and hold hand of a man who didn’t belong to their Kin. Othello becomes the voice of that man who when found true love was manipulated against his own love and he destroyed it with his own hands. I saw myself as Desdemona where each layer of story seemed mine, disowned and not accepted I held the hand of another Othello who was the man on earth with the courage to fight. But I couldn’t create a love story with a tragic ending, this one had to be different, thus I have retold it in a free flowing verse style with an ending that is truthful and more comforting. Tragedy is not the end always, but I wonder must how did Shakespeare create a story so truthful long before the births of many lovers to come upon earth.