The BlueIris Semi-Nightly Poetry Break, 5/29/08

[BlueIris]

"On Not Knowing Hungarian"

I was there two whole years
and I learned how to order a beer,
say good day, and ask if a movie was dubbed.

They say it's a difficult language
with few relations and odd conjunction
but I could have learned more.

I had planned to become fluent,
to translate the poetry of Radnoti,
to get the puns. Why else travel?

Abroad I picked up very little Tibetan
and a tiny bit of Español.
I've forgotten Fulfuldi

and the Bambara of Southern Mali
where that first night the village stood at my door
pointing me to their language.

I repeated the whole world of nouns
—door, termite, shirt, papaya, woman, good-bye—
and they left, satisfied I had joined them.

But of course nothing stuck.
The words were gone with the breath they rode on
and I slept in the place of nothing to say.

Why else travel? There is a saying in Hungarian.
If only I knew the words I would put them here.

—Eran Williams

[I Have A Dream]

1. I like this, BI!

We all have such big plans, but everyday life and lack of drive/willpower gets in the way. Thus it is to be human. We need to forgive ourselves.

:)

[BlueIris]

2. Aw. Hi there, I Have. For a second, I thought I'd messed up and put this in the Astro/Spirituality

forum. Nice to see you in my poem threads again.

[I Have A Dream]

3. I haven't been spending much time in the Lounge lately.

I'm glad that you're still posting these threads, BI. I know that you put a piece of yourself into each one. :hug:

[BlueIris]

4. Yeah, sometimes the Lounge isn't...the best place for our contributions.

But there are like, four or five people getting something out of these threads, so I feel like I should keep posting for a while yet. :-)

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. My dear BlueIris!

Oooh, nice!

The futility of learning another language so you can travel...

...But of course nothing stuck.
The words were gone with the breath they rode on
and I slept in the place of nothing to say...

Beautifully put!

Thank you...


:hug:

[BlueIris]

6. C-Peg! You're most welcome! nt

[BlueIris]

7. One last kick, for the night crowd.