The Waste Land and other Poems
Friday, October 05, 2007
feinabstimmen
oh languages!
is not as simple as just translation
Language is just one of the many
elements that delineate a society
According to language
it is, i think, the most ancient method
to categorize human societies
we hear, we understand, we connect
action, reaction, perception
and however language is just such a little peak
to an specific civilization!
Yet, the way we all speak
Our choice of words
Reveal not just to what group we belong
language-wise
But if we fine tune the ear
our words reveal
What we think
What we feel
What we dream
Who we are
your words and mine
come from different big crisol!
[der Schmelztiegel]
where like a warm soup
melts in one this vast global civilization
so different
yet all in the same space and the same time
I am lucky to have taken a look at 2 cultures by now
My mother language Spanish
and my country Mexico
And such a defined cultural influence the city
I grew in, and I consider myself lucky as well
For the all the Hispanic literature I was able to read back then
Feeding my soul with distant and magic imaginary cities
Sentiments and surreal places
And later USA
The switch of a culture, the idiosyncrasies of the North-American life
the efficiency! simplicity, the DMW rules
the vast "America"
[not the continent but as americanized Americans refer to this country country]
Their non-metric system
The date, every day, you have to learn to write it
Different
The month goes first
Their illogical yet lovely soft pronunciation
Their short worded sentences
And their open smiles and big hearts
for a nation where guns are legal
How many details are different!
And I am so close geographically to Mexico
Yet a couple of day can pass without me speaking Spanish
Mexico and the USA we are so close
And yet, a whole world apart
and then there is the
American and English literatures
Amazing! Lucky again of have dive in there a little
And now… ah German
Wow, just a few classes and…
I am thankful for my professor
She gets into detail on those miniatures
Experiences of life
Oh how you get grades in school
There and the Autobahn rules
And the little lectures on my book
With maps and cultural “bits”
That show me more of how
The every day people is there
And many other manners of the German culture
I am sure, the next time I am there
I will be much more open and susceptible
To those little details of life
Than when I was there and understood nothing!
Lucky to be able to take a look to another
Civilization, another way of thinking
And living
How the date you write at the office
How people greet in the morning
And what they eat for breakfast
How the love and they think
And how they suffer but recover
All those events that make life so important
Not just the translation of them
But the ethics and the soul
Of another nation
If study a lot!!
This would be my 3rd language
I never valuated so deeply
To be bilingual before, as now,
When I go for the 3rd one…
my English here lately is sloppy
so i bet is my Spanish
but if focus, i know i can write them
i hope one day
i can do "el Deutsch fine-tunning"
ich möchte auf Deutsch sprechen!
und verstehen ein bisschen ein Paar deutsch Seelen
is not as simple as just translation
Language is just one of the many
elements that delineate a society
According to language
it is, i think, the most ancient method
to categorize human societies
we hear, we understand, we connect
action, reaction, perception
and however language is just such a little peak
to an specific civilization!
Yet, the way we all speak
Our choice of words
Reveal not just to what group we belong
language-wise
But if we fine tune the ear
our words reveal
What we think
What we feel
What we dream
Who we are
your words and mine
come from different big crisol!
[der Schmelztiegel]
where like a warm soup
melts in one this vast global civilization
so different
yet all in the same space and the same time
I am lucky to have taken a look at 2 cultures by now
My mother language Spanish
and my country Mexico
And such a defined cultural influence the city
I grew in, and I consider myself lucky as well
For the all the Hispanic literature I was able to read back then
Feeding my soul with distant and magic imaginary cities
Sentiments and surreal places
And later USA
The switch of a culture, the idiosyncrasies of the North-American life
the efficiency! simplicity, the DMW rules
the vast "America"
[not the continent but as americanized Americans refer to this country country]
Their non-metric system
The date, every day, you have to learn to write it
Different
The month goes first
Their illogical yet lovely soft pronunciation
Their short worded sentences
And their open smiles and big hearts
for a nation where guns are legal
How many details are different!
And I am so close geographically to Mexico
Yet a couple of day can pass without me speaking Spanish
Mexico and the USA we are so close
And yet, a whole world apart
and then there is the
American and English literatures
Amazing! Lucky again of have dive in there a little
And now… ah German
Wow, just a few classes and…
I am thankful for my professor
She gets into detail on those miniatures
Experiences of life
Oh how you get grades in school
There and the Autobahn rules
And the little lectures on my book
With maps and cultural “bits”
That show me more of how
The every day people is there
And many other manners of the German culture
I am sure, the next time I am there
I will be much more open and susceptible
To those little details of life
Than when I was there and understood nothing!
Lucky to be able to take a look to another
Civilization, another way of thinking
And living
How the date you write at the office
How people greet in the morning
And what they eat for breakfast
How the love and they think
And how they suffer but recover
All those events that make life so important
Not just the translation of them
But the ethics and the soul
Of another nation
If study a lot!!
This would be my 3rd language
I never valuated so deeply
To be bilingual before, as now,
When I go for the 3rd one…
my English here lately is sloppy
so i bet is my Spanish
but if focus, i know i can write them
i hope one day
i can do "el Deutsch fine-tunning"
ich möchte auf Deutsch sprechen!
und verstehen ein bisschen ein Paar deutsch Seelen
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