Poetry opens up a timeless space.
And I would have been gently taken into an airy private free zone.
Books, pictures, films, poetry, sculptures, gardens, music, fashion, food, people, having tea with someone, a sun filled corner with a sofa, and so many endless sources of visual audio sensual streams coming slowly and suddenly : poetry is here.
On : "A Thing You're Saying"
The poem speaks of a situation where we are protected by a special magic shield, the shield of a foreign language. A foreign language is not something that you could translate word for word, it is a total world in itself. It is a punctual instant subtle privacy part of another system, another world.
All because of our capacity to speak another language.
Delicately, its not hiding, a foreign language is a glossy shield, we could see out and others could not see in.
You can be as open and direct as you choose, the protective shield would always be there.
Even the most private moments, in the closest physical space, the words and its worlds are delicately shielded.
In a loud and public place, in the privacy of your home with social and intimate friends, you are magically shielded.
And you are in your poetic precious quiet space, where you could be looking out and no one could look in, they cannot catch this part of you.
By Shuengit Natasha Chow
---
p16
A Thing You're Saying
你在說的事
When you speak another language you can say 當你會一种外語時, 你可以講
exactly what you feel 你真正的感覺
in the middle of a subway car 你可以在地鐵裏講
and no one will understand you. 也沒人會聽懂
When you speak another language 當你會一种外語時
no one will understand one word. 沒人會聽懂, 連一個字都聽不懂
You can stand in your living room 你可以站在自家客廳裏
and speak and no one understands. 在講啊講而又無人會聽懂
You could gather your friends around you 你可以把你的朋友聚集起來
at the table 圍在枱邊
and lift your glass 舉起你的酒杯
and say whatever you wanted 你說你想講的
and they wouldn't understand a word. 而他們會一個字都聽不懂
You
could tell them word for word 你可以一個字一個字地解說
what
your truelove said once 你心上人以前說過的
in
your bedroom 在你的睡房
while
you were kissing 當你在親吻
her
stomach. 她的肚子
And
they wouldn't understand one word. 而他們會一個字都聽不懂
You
can talk out loud at four in the morning 你可以四點早辰大聲講
lying
alone in bed 獨自睡在床上
on
your back 臥着
and
the downstairs neighbor will hear you 樓下的鄰居會聽到你
but
won't understand 但會不懂
a thing you're saying. 一點都聽不懂
Poetry: "Slow Mountain Train", book of poems by Roger Greenwald
(Tiger Bark Press, 2015).
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