Poems From Other Cultures and Traditions

Poems From Other Cultures and Traditions

From 'Search For My Tongue' Tatamkhulu Afrika, Maqabane (1994)

When you read this poem, bear in mind that language and the use of the

mother tongue (our own language, the one we were brought up speaking)

are very important to any individual. We all take it for granted that

we can use our language if we live where we were born. We don't even

have to think about it. But when you go to live in another country you

have to learn another language, and it can be very confusing. The use

of another language, one that is not your own, often functions on an

emotional level. Also, after a while you start mixing the two

languages. This is the problem faced by the speaker in this excerpt.

Those of you who were not originally English speaking will recognise

the dilemma expressed in this excerpt!

Read the poem once or twice. Go through it slowly after that, in your

mind relating the use of language (tongue) to the physical tongue.

Some of you will, of course, recognise and understand the Gujerati in

the centre of the extract. For some of you this will be your mother

tongue! But most of you will be unable to decode it.

So there will be many different reactions to reading this poem. I wish

I were present to hear these reactions!

Point of view

Here we have a first-person speaker addressing 'you'. There appears to

be a conversation going on, as the 'you' has just asked the question

that prompts the rest of the poem. A conversation is appropriate for a

poem on language and communication.

Grasping the dilemma

Imagine you had two physical tongues in your mouth. That's how Bhatt

asks the listener to perceive the problem. We unconsciously relate

language to the tongue. How often have we said to people, 'Have you

lost your tongue?' when they fail to give us an answer or when they

remain silent? That's because the tongue is one of the crucial organs

we use when speaking.

The speaker here has taken a new slant on the question and has said

her tongue has indeed been lost, but she means her mother language has

been lost, not her physical tongue.

The extended metaphor

Notice as you read and study the poem that the whole extract builds on

an extended metaphor - the physical tongue as a metaphor for language.

The idea of having two actual tongues (of course the speaker means

languages) in your mouth provides a strong physical equivalent of the

discomfort felt by someone operating in a foreign language

environment.

The nature of this discomfort if elaborated in lines 5-6.