English Lessons
1.
If math is pure music
it possesses its own dictionary
separate from how humans
wrote the Bible—
"variable" is defined as a letter
representing an unknown number—
such purity is tainted on the path
-ways between mind and hand
between witness and hand
between memory and hand
between desire and hand
between regret and hand—
between "x" and hand writing
the poem, the book, the love letter...
Four months into his English lessons
Michael translates into music
words of a colonizing language
which does not know him:
twelve minus seven: 12-7
ten divided by five: 10 / 5
ten times a number: 10n
a number added to three: n+3
two times the sum of five and five: 2(5+5)
m subtracted from ten: m-10
The mistranslated often gets the last word.
2.
New adoptees are often scared
to make mistakes, fearing
the error will minus his family
Three months into learning English, Michael responded to a homework assignment:
Mi Mama is a person I admire because mi Mama es mayor. I first heard about ella when I was aprendo de mi Mama. At first, I wasn't very impressed. But when I learned educasion de mi mama, I decided that this was a very special person. Ella is best known for primer libro de poemas, which happened 11 anos ago. At that time, she was joven con no mucha experiencia. Since that time, she has escribe 16 mas libros. Why has ella been so successful? I think it is because she trabaja mucho.
The result would be charming, if I wanted to mistranslate this rose's impetus.
3.
To live is to translate.
I mistranslate to make myself feel better about this inherited world.
Ekleksographia:
Wave Two
October, 2009
Poems
Eileen Tabios translates her son
Eileen Tabios' publications include 16 poetry collections, a novel, an art essay collection, a poetry essay/interview anthology, and a short story book. Her 2009 books are Nota Bene Eiswein (Ahadada) and Footnotes to Algebra: Uncollected Poems 1995-2009 (BlazeVOX Books). Forthcoming in 2010 is The Thorn Rosary: Selected Prose Poems 1998-2020, selected by Thomas Fink (Marsh Hawk Press). She blogs as the "Chatelaine" at AngelicPoker.blogspot.com and edits GALATEA RESURRECTS, a popular poetry review journal.