This page features a video of the poem “Photograph”, prescribed under the Karnataka State Syllabus for 9th Standard English First Language. Along with its summary in three languages and transliterated songs. It serves as a valuable learning resource for students and parents, with each song accompanied by its respective lyrics for easy sing-along. The synchronized lyrics help learners follow and recite the song as it progresses, making memorization and learning by heart easier, more effective, and enjoyable.
Lyrics
English
The cardboard shows me how it was
When the two girl cousins went paddling,
Each one holding one of my mother’s hands,
And she the big girl - some twelve years or so.
All three stood still to smile through their hair
At the uncle with the camera. A sweet face,
My mother’s, that was before I was born,
And the sea, which appears to have changed less,
Washed their terribly transient feet.
Some twenty-thirty-years later
She’d laugh at the snapshot, “See Betty And Dolly,” she’d say,
“and look how they dressed us for the beach,” The sea holiday
Was her past, mine is her laughter. Both wry
With the laboured ease of loss.
Now she’s been dead nearly as many years
As that girl lived. And of this circumstance
There is nothing to say at all.
Its silence silences.
When the two girl cousins went paddling,
Each one holding one of my mother’s hands,
And she the big girl - some twelve years or so.
All three stood still to smile through their hair
At the uncle with the camera. A sweet face,
My mother’s, that was before I was born,
And the sea, which appears to have changed less,
Washed their terribly transient feet.
Some twenty-thirty-years later
She’d laugh at the snapshot, “See Betty And Dolly,” she’d say,
“and look how they dressed us for the beach,” The sea holiday
Was her past, mine is her laughter. Both wry
With the laboured ease of loss.
Now she’s been dead nearly as many years
As that girl lived. And of this circumstance
There is nothing to say at all.
Its silence silences.
Summary
The poem uses an old photograph to explore childhood memories, the passage of time, and the loss of the speaker's mother. The photograph shows the mother as a young girl standing at the beach with her two cousins while an uncle takes their picture. Many years later, the mother laughs at the photograph and remembers the beach holiday and the clothes they wore. Her laughter becomes a precious memory for the speaker after her death. In the final lines, the silence surrounding the mother's death expresses the deep and almost wordless nature of grief and loss.
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