Summary
"kaur / a woman of sikkhi" celebrates the poet's heritage as a Sikhi woman. The speaker states that her last name, "kaur," grants her freedom by removing the unspecified shackles that attempt to bind her. The name uplifts the speaker and reminds her that she is equal to men, as designated by her faith and the tradition that guides her people. However, systems of oppression prevalent throughout the world scream at the speaker that she is not in fact equal to men.
The speaker insists that she is her own woman and that she belongs wholly to herself and to the universe. This both bolsters the speaker's identity and humbles her because she feels called to the "universal duty" to share her poetry and thoughts with the world. The speaker's main intention is to nurture and serve her sisters (fellow women, particularly women of color) and uplift those who need it.
The speaker states that the name kaur is in her blood and that it was in her before the word itself existed. The connection to a tradition, people, and sense of duty is encapsulated in the name "kaur," and it is both the speaker's identity and liberation.
Analysis
Not many of the poems in this collection deal with Kaur's heritage or specify the personal details of her life. Though the poems generally deal with topics such as love, heartbreak, and abuse, they do not delve too deeply into Kaur's own life. "-kaur / a woman of sikkhi" is perhaps among the most personal in the collection. Placed in the collection's last section entitled "the healing," the speaker in "-kaur / a woman of sikkhi" finds catharsis in connecting to her heritage and to what already exists within herself. Like all of Kaur's poems, "kaur / a woman of sikkhi" is written in free verse with a stream-of-consciousness style.
Kaur has stated that she uses only lowercase in her writing as a way to honor her native Punjabi language. Gurmukhi script (used in Punjab) does not use separate upper and lower case, and so Kaur applies this in her poetry by only using lowercase. Some critics have stated that Kaur's spare punctuation and simple style make her poems accessible to those who learned English as a second language, and even to those who feel that traditional poetry is too difficult to understand.
In the poem, the speaker states that the name Kaur makes her a free woman. In a radical rejection of the Hindu caste system, baptized men and women in the Sikh faith take on the name Singh if male (meaning 'lion') and Kaur if female (meaning 'princess'). The word 'sikh' translates to 'disciple' or follower,' and it encompasses an entire religion with distinct scriptures, beliefs, prayers, and practices. Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh guru, introduced the use of these names in opposition to caste-based prejudice. The name Kaur grants the speaker in this poem a feeling of freedom by uniting her with the women of her faith. The name "removes the shackles" that try to bind the speaker. It is not specified what these shackles are, but presumably they refer to any individual person or system of oppression that attempts to isolate and control the speaker. The speaker further states that her shared name uplifts her. Rather than feel weighed down by traditional expectations or unfair treatment due to the fact that she was born a girl, the speaker experiences empowerment and connection through her traditional name.
The name Kaur reminds the speaker that she is equal to any man. In the Sikh religion, women are recognized and valued as equal to men. The founder of the religion, Guru Nanak, stressed this equality by advocating for women and laying the foundation for their emancipation. He even wrote poetry in praise of women, and abolished several abusive practices that harm women and girls (such as child marriage and female infanticide). Rupi Kaur has stated that she wished to have only her last name on the spine of this poetry collection so that young Sikhi girls could enter a bookstore and see their name on the cover of a book.
Despite the way that the Sikh religion practices equality of the sexes, the speaker in "-kaur / a woman of sikkhi" asserts that "the state / of this world screams" to her that she is not equal to men. The line break places an emphasis on the concept of "the state," which refers not just to the condition of something but also to a governing body. This double meaning suggests that sexism is politically embedded. The personification of "the state / of this world" characterizes it as loud and harmful to the speaker and to all women.
The speaker's name, Kaur, reminds her that she is her own woman who belongs "wholly" to both herself and to the universe. As a homophone, the word "wholly" has a double meaning: the speaker is 'whole' as in unfragmented, and also 'holy' as in sacred. The speaker is humbled by this sense of belonging. Like "the state," the speaker's name is personified with a voice. But unlike the screaming voice of "the state," the name Kaur calls out to the speaker and bestows upon her a sense of universal duty. This duty is for the speaker to share her poetry with all of humanity, and to nurture and serve her sisters (women, particularly women of color). The speaker intends to use the uplifting energy of her name to raise those that need raising.
In the final movement of the poem, the speaker states that the name Kaur runs in her blood. This makes the name an integral part of her physical and spiritual body. On the surface, the line "it was in me before the word itself existed" appears counterintuitive—clearly, the Sikh faith and the name Kaur existed long before the speaker. However, the speaker has already stated that she belongs both to herself and to the universe, suggesting that whatever energy solidified into the matter of her body existed prior to the Sikh religion. The tone of this line is primordial, evoking a sense of preordainment. The final line of the poem further emphasizes that the name Kaur is the speaker's identity and liberation.
