A Private Eye Bajadere Poem by Louise Tredoux

Monday morning, washing day, clothes, linen,
towels, sneakers, socks of course - before I start
I need a shot of dreams, a fantasy to carry me
through a mundane job of cleaning things

I could be an old-fashioned galley slave working
away on a ship crossing the Caribbean, or I could
be a fairy banished from fairyland forced to toil
a human life in order to earn fairy Brownie points

Or I could be a Private Eye posing as a household
drudge in order to fool all the street thugs while I’m
watching their every move, sending information
to my spy friends through secret signs

Suddenly, while I’m still sending signs pretending
I’m washing windows, someone grabbed me from
behind, I screamed, Rudi laughed; enquired about
my funny game, I told him my Private Eye fantasy

He became a rich Mafia boss seducing this Private
Eye to tap her brain, then fell in love and took her
for himself, mmm, Rudi understands my games
so well, next I’ll be his Bajadere

He’ll get to be the god Siva just as he is for me,
tomorrow I’ll immolate myself upon his pyre and
ascend to heaven in his arms...

(When our lecturer asked me what is a Bajadere,
I answered modestly Ein Dienstmädchen, he
smiled paternally and said we’d leave it at that)

‘Der Gott und die Bajadere’, a ballad with the sub-title ‘Indische Legende’ written by J. W. Goethe in June 1797, and published in the Musenalmanach for 1798. It is the story of an Indian prostitute who is visited by the god Siva, unrecognized in human form, and is seized with true love for him. The human shape is found lifeless in the morning, and the Bajadere immolates herself upon its pyre. She ascends to heaven in the arms of the god.
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