in your language, not mine


in your language, not mine
will i abuse and curse at you
and scream and rail and rant at you
in your language, not mine.

in your language, not mine
will i tear at your histories
claw at your imposed geographies
in your language, not mine.

and when this well of anger
has boiled away
and the wind has scattered
the ashes of our pain
we will sit
and eat
and drink
together.

and laugh and even talk,
maybe
though in your language,
not mine.

18 comments:

Gauri Gharpure said...

this poem made me cry.. reads too painful, at least to me!

Peer Gynt said...

a dik ka ti lutuk. ziah ngaihna pawh ka hre lo.

feddabonn said...

@gauri: it is painful, i'm afraid. and those of us that don't have solutions are reduced to writing poems (?) about it.

@peer: dik leh dik lo pawh ka hre thiam toh tak tak lo. thu rawn thleng hi ziak thla phawt i-la...

Calliopia said...

Phew! Mizo tawng i lo thiam reng a ni maw? :D

Mos-a said...

ఠ_ఠ

oye B. Lose the Word verification thingie.

feddabonn said...

@c: lol. sometimes...
@mos: done, and if i'm inundated with spam i'll send them on to you...[evil grin]

Joe Pinto said...

Baruk / Gauri:

Poems are expressions
of our anguish -- not solutions.

There are solutions. I try them out in my classrooms. And the best of my students - like Gauri -
respond.

Most go down the drain, brainwashed by the BBC.
Don't cry for them.

Thank you Baruk.
Among the Maoris, I think you - a Mizo - understand my Konkani mother sincerely now.

Note: I'm going away from the blogosphere for the next three months.

Peace and love,
- Joe.

John Doe said...

painfully beautiful.

Aduhi Chawngthu said...

"and when this well of anger
has boiled away
and the wind has scattered
the ashes of our pain
we will sit
and eat
and drink
together."

Lovely.

feddabonn said...

@joe: i think i *do understand your mothers love for konkani better now. while i still am suspicious of language based chauvinism, i also understand her love for her language.

@JD and aduhi: thank you.

@everyone: i was rather sure, when posting this, that it would either be ignored, reviled or poked at as proof of my inconsistent attitude to languages. i am touched that so many of you have been touched by this. thank you all for leaving a comment-it means much to me.

PrlJay said...

...turgid** btw there's a Bangalore bunch trying to start something abit similar-ish to provoke...can you send link? They call it a rather er um well predictable 'artivism'.

feddabonn said...

the provoke website is defunct for now. i'd imagine there are plenty of models out there though. http://blog.groundswellcollective.com and http://radicalcrossstitch.com/ are a couple i particularly like. http://maraa.in/ also do some interesting work.

PrlJay said...

**Turgid as in "Turgor is what makes living plant tissue rigid. Loss of turgor, resulting from the loss of water from plant cells, causes flowers and leaves to wilt". My malapropism is something I was probably born with....so I guess Turgid is not turgor but it was what I meant. (blushes deeply)

Mizohican said...

Speechless... too beautiful and honest. sniff.

And regarding our mail, I'll be coming up with a new registration form by today :)

Ps. Actually, forget what Amos said above. Even Im gonna start using Word Verification. Toooooo many spams these days. Am getting like 4-5 spam comments a day on various posts, like the ones I wrote 4-5 years ago etc.

Pps. Didnt know you know Mizo either :D Or did mommy helped ya? *wink*

feddabonn said...

lol, 'sionaire, thanks!

i haven't had spam (yet) so am going to stay with the mos-ster's demands. i guess your spam's the price for your blog's fame! :)

@mizo: i *can speak conversational mizo in small bursts, and can understand, though my reading is painfully slow. this might be the first time i tried writing in public, though, lol...always scared my spelling will be too way off!

feddabonn said...

@wormwood: actually dictionary.com seems to think the words are related. having said that, i still don't know what it is you mean about the poem. sorry to be pinning you down to it like this, but i don't often get a chance [evil grin].

Anonymous said...

Just Beautiful. wow. the "maybe though " at the end is so bewitchingly apt

feddabonn said...

much thanks, anon. glad you like the 'maybe'...i try to keep it real!