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Monday, April 29, 2013

NaPoWriMo Day 29: In My Language, That Means...

Today's NaPoWriMo challenge is to "try writing poems that contain at least five words in other languages...a poem that takes place in a foreign country or, a poem based on overheard conversation (inclusive of foreign words)...(possibly digging) deep into what you remember from high-school Spanish, or (using) a dictionary to translate a few interesting words into other languages, (even) drop a Mohrrübe or an asciugamano into your work today (even if it seems de trop. )"  A variation on the challenge:  I get to thinking of different meanings of the same or similar groups of phonemes in the Telugu language of south India, Finnish, and/or English...here's a start on that idea: 

In My Language That Means

Kukka blooms in the arctic spring,
while my brother's fancifully named 'Kukka'
is bound-ifully unaware
that his name in Telugu
means no more than his species:
DOG.

"Isn't that sweet," chortles my daughter,
"Uncle said the aunties and uncles
were concerned about my dating;
because they don't want anybody
to spoil my personality," but her smile
quickly becomes uber serious
when she learns: the p word
in Telugu land means 'body."
                    ------------- by S.S.Franklin
In the meantime, the original day 29 challenge, simply to incorporate a handful of foreign language words in a poem,  appears to be a way to enrich yesterday's musing on the color white, so let me go back to day 28th's poem, and explore that variation.  (tbcontinued later...)

1 comment:

  1. You're getting there Shirley...just today and you are done. Nicely done language poem!
    Lynn

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