Last July I had an accident which caused a traumatic brain injury. Since then I have recovered considerably. I spent three weeks in a rehab facility near Cologne in November. During that time I did lots of hiking, reading, writing, and thinking. While hiking, verse started coming into my head. The last time I wrote much poetry was when I was about 13, writing song lyrics for heavy metal songs. I plan to publish some of my poems over the next couple months, and hopefully I might find time to write some more. This poem I wrote after rehab, mostly while waiting in doctor’s offices. I hope you enjoy it.
If language were simple there would be no linguists
for millenia busily studying its turns and twists
Mouse mice, goose geese, the linguists know the reason
None would call the study of word history an act of treason
But to express in words the depth of the psyche
Such a task is fraught with peril and tears. Krikey!
For we have not one soul, but many
some as weighty as gold, others merely a penny
How can one possibly flawlessly express
the feelings one has when under duress
Understanding is not instantaneous but rather a process
and through continued conversation one sees the progress
To truly understand how another person is feeling
on an arduous journey the mind goes reeling
For the translation of the soul there is no Rosetta Stone
Humans are more complex than a cyborg clone
There is a myth that Eskimos have twenty words for snow
A gross exaggeration is this most linguists know
Yet the idea that language and culture are inextricably intertwined
even in modern linguistic textbooks one will find
A single word may stress the importance of a concept
for the culture in which its meaning is kept
But the absence of a single conceptual word does not imply
that the foreigner is unable to comprehend the how and why
The act of translation requires deep concentration
and the intellectual rigor yields a deeper appreciation
To fully grasp the nuance and complexity of the human condition
one must continuously strive, yielding this bold proposition:
The solution to feeling lost in a foreign nation
can best be solved and found in translation