Words and Language

Random Musings about words and language

Hearts of fire are not the same as hearts on fire
Just like speech is not the same as language
One is the subset of the other
Speech is one vehicle for language
You can have speech but without understanding of what you are saying
A lot of parrots do that, including the human ones
Ever wonder why some can write poetry while most cannot 
There must be some process involved whereby a confluence 
Of factors takes place: words, sounds, rhythm, and suggestions
Bilingualism or more brings on the magic of language
Have you ever wondered
In which language does the speaker dream the most
And which language he writes poetry, if he does so at all
Joseph Conrad, Samuel Beckett, Vladimir Nabokov,
Su Tong, Ha Jin, Carlos Castaneda all wrote magically in adopted tongues
What was going in their brains when they wrote
How did the words get together
Did their mother tongues get in the way
I can express my thoughts,
No matter how complex, in my secondary language,
But how come I keep making basic grammatical mistakes
What goes wrong
Back to my favorite adopted slogan:
You are what you write in an adopted tongue
You cannot fake it
No matter how hard you try
Somehow the reader can see through the stumbling, stilted prose 
And recognize you for who you are: a poseur