[New-Poetry] vanishing languages

[Anny Ballardini]

About 14 million people live in the alpine territory. 42 per cent is German
mother tongue, 35 per cent Italian, 20 per cent French, 3 per cent Slovene.
Moreover, hundreds of linguistic minorities and of other languages survive
(Ladin, Patois, Walser, Cimbrian, Mocheno, Provençal, French- Provençal …).
Source: Segnali Alpini 1.

On Sat, Jan 17, 2009 at 11:02 PM, <jforjames at aol.com> wrote:

> I like this poem, Michael..the villanellesque (repititions) works in
> concert with the theme/subject.
> Finnegan
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Snider <mandolin at mikesnider.org>
> Sent: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 11:16 am
> Subject: Re: [New-Poetry] vanishing languages
>
>  2009/1/16 <jforjames at aol.com>
> >
> > http://thelinguists.com/
>
>
>  I wrote this ABC Villanelle (thanks for the form, Old Mole) on one
> such occasion:
>
> Chief Marie Smith Jones, 1919-2008
>
>                 Last native speaker of Eyak
>
>
> Already all there was was what she knew,
> And now she's dead. The difference is a date
> Beyond which nothing new can now be said—
>
> She was the last who dreamed in Eyak, who
> Remembered when to speak, why hesitate—
> Already all there was was what she knew,
>
> And forty years of teaching left instead
> Of living language only its substrate,
> Beyond which nothing new can now be said.
>
> How did it feel to speak her word  for "true"?
> We'll ask, but we can only speculate.
> Already all there was was what she knew,
>
> And maybe "true" for her was si
> mple dread
> Without a voice her speech would suffocate,
> Beyond which nothing new can now be said.
>
> Not you, nor I—nor anyone—will coo
> Sweet nothings to a lover in her dead
> Tongue no child will ever imitate,
> Beyond which nothing new can now be said.
> Already all there was was what she knew.
>
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-- 
Anny Ballardini
http://annyballardini.blogspot.com/
http://www.fieralingue.it/modules.php?name=poetshome
http://www.moriapoetry.com/ebooks.html
I Tell You: One must still have chaos in one to give birth to a dancing
star!
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