Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.
Lines 17-30
(munay hutoo kay aakhee jeebh aakhee bhasha)
(may thoonky nakhi chay)
(parantoo rattray svupnama mari bhasha pachi aavay chay)
(foolnee jaim mari bhasha nmari jeebh)
(modhama kheelay chay)
(fullnee jaim mari bhasha mari jeebh)
(modhama pakay chay)
- Whew, we thought we'd never make it to this second stanza, but here we are. Now we finally get to find out what goes on in our speaker's dreams and—whaaat?
- Um, we're pretty sure that's not English, Shmoopers. Give us just a second while we break out our Shmoop-o-meter to see what we're dealing with here…
- A-ha—this is just as we suspected. Those symbols are actually Gujrati, and after each line we have the English pronunciation guide for the line above. That clears up that mystery, save one last question: what's Gujrati?
- We're so glad you asked. Gujrati is the language of Gujarat, a state in the northwest corner of India. Oddly enough, this is also where our poet, Sujata Bhatt is from. You can check out more about this wild coincidence in the "Speaker" section.
- For now, we should point out just how innovative this section is. Typically, the use of foreign words in an English language poem is limited. If they are included at all, they're put in italics to let us know, "Hey, foreign word coming at you."
- In this case, though, we get both the Gujrati lines on their own and the pronunciation guides underneath.
- So, while we are no closer to finding out what's going on in the speaker's dreams—unless you read or speak Gujrati—we are instead thrust directly into her experiences.
- After all, we're guessing that not too many of you out there are familiar with the Gujrati language. To borrow the poem's language, it's probably a "foreign tongue."
- Now, be honest: did you try to read the English pronouncers in parenthesis? Or did you just gloss this over and skip right on down?
- If you skimmed this, it's because this language is not your own. Congratulations—you were probably feeling what our speaker is describing in the first stanza. Being thrust suddenly into a foreign language can be an uncomfortable and disorienting experience.
- The only difference between the speaker and the reader, however, is that the reader can skip ahead to the familiarity of English in stanza 3.
- Imagine if the entire poem was like this, though. Now, imagine that every street sign, candy wrapper, web site, and bus ad was in Gujrati. How at home would you feel?
- This gives us readers a little sense of what the speaker is forced to put up with on a daily basis.