Poems from other cultures
...ript is transliterated into a phonetic English version in brackets, so even if you don't know any Gujarati, you can still have a go. Do you notice any kind of patterning in the sound of the Indian language? Listen to the poet read the poem in the BBC TV programme Roots and Water: Poems from Other Cultures and Traditions, if you can. If the poem says more or less the same thing twice, might it just as well be written in one language only? What do you think would be lost if the Gujarati disappeared? Language and imagery Now think about the language that is used in the poem. How many meanings does the word 'tongue' have in the poem? Consider these: • It is a part of the body - the part you speak with. • It has also come to mean the language that you speak. • The phrase lost my tongue (line 2) is used colloquially to mean that someone is tongue-tied and does not know what to say. Read the poem carefully and see where Sujata Bhatt plays with these meanings. For example, she imagines that knowing two languages is like having two tongues in your mouth (line 4). The poet compares her tongue to a plant, as she develops her ideas. This is called an extended metaphor. The lists below describe some of the ways in which her mother tongue is compared to a plant. Try to complete the second list, using the phrases in the first one as a guide: Mother Tongue • would rot / rot and die (line 13) • it grows back (line 31) • grows strong veins (line 32) Why it is like a plant • plants die in the wrong environment Why do you think this image is so successful? Look at the contrasts that it includes: • Some of the imagery is quite startling, when she imagines that the moth...