Poems From Other Cultures and Traditions - From 'Search For My Tongue' Tatamkhulu Afrika, Maqabane.
Poems From Other Cultures and Traditions From 'Search For My Tongue' Tatamkhulu Afrika, Maqabane (1994) When you read this poem, bear in mind that language and the use of the mother tongue (our own language, the one we were brought up speaking) are very important to any individual. We all take it for granted that we can use our language if we live where we were born. We don't even have to think about it. But when you go to live in another country you have to learn another language, and it can be very confusing. The use of another language, one that is not your own, often functions on an emotional level. Also, after a while you start mixing the two languages. This is the problem faced by the speaker in this excerpt. Those of you who were not originally English speaking will recognise the dilemma expressed in this excerpt! Read the poem once or twice. Go through it slowly after that, in your mind relating the use of language (tongue) to the physical tongue. Some of you will, of course, recognise and understand the Gujerati in the centre of the extract. For some of you this will be your mother tongue! But most of you will be unable to decode it. So there will be many different reactions to reading this poem. I wish I were present to hear these reactions! Point of view Here we have a first-person speaker addressing 'you'. There appears to be a conversation going
Poems from Other Cultures and Traditions
Poems from Other Cultures and Traditions Introduction In the Anthology, poets from other cultures and traditions are contrasted with those in the English literary heritage. The writers in this section may live in the UK as members of ethnic minority groups or may live overseas. All the poems in this section are written largely or wholly in English, but in several you will find non-standard varieties of English, while several make use of other languages. One even has text in Gujarati. Sujata Bhatt: from Search for My Tongue This poem (or rather extract from a long poem) explores a familiar ambiguity in English - "tongue" refers both to the physical organ we use for speech, and the language we speak with it. (Saying "tongue" for "speech" is an example of metonymy). In the poem Sujata Bhatt writes about the "tongue" in both ways at once. To lose your tongue normally means not knowing what to say, but Ms. Bhatt suggests that one can lose one's tongue in another sense. The speaker in this poem is obviously the poet herself, but she speaks for many who fear they may have lost their ability to speak for themselves and their culture. She explains this with the image of two tongues - a mother tongue (one's first language) and a second tongue (the language of the place where you live). She argues that you cannot use both together. She suggests, further, that if you live in a
Poetry Analysis Tatamkhulu Afrika: Nothing's Changed, Sujata Bhatt: from Search for My Tongue, Tom Leonard: from Unrelated Incidents, Derek Walcott: Love after Love
Tatamkhulu Afrika: Nothing's Changed This poem depicts a society where rich and poor are divided. In the apartheid era of racial segregation in South Africa, where the poem is set, laws, enforced by the police, kept apart black and white people. The poet looks at attempts to change this system, and shows how they are ineffective, making no real difference. Jackie Fielding writes: "I had always assumed that the poem was written post-apartheid and reflected the bitterness that knowing "one's place" in society is so deeply ingrained that the I-persona can't bring himself to accept his new-found freedom under Mandela. I also find it interesting that the poet is not South African and not black." "District Six" is the name of a poor area of Cape Town (one of South Africa's two capital cities; the other is Pretoria). This area was bulldozed as a slum in 1966, but never properly rebuilt. Although there is no sign there, the poet can feel that this is where he is: "...my feet know/and my hands." Similarly the "up-market" inn ("brash with glass" and the bright sign ,"flaring like a flag", which shows its name) is meant for white customers only. There is no sign to show this (as there would have been under apartheid) but black and coloured people, being poor, will not be allowed past the "guard at the gatepost". The "whites only inn" is elegant, with linen tablecloths and a "single
'A piece of art, as well as being a creation to be enjoyed, can also be a mirror...If a country or culture lacks such mirrors it has no way of knowing what it looks like, it must travel blind' (Margaret Atwood).
'A piece of art, as well as being a creation to be enjoyed, can also be a mirror...If a country or culture lacks such mirrors it has no way of knowing what it looks like, it must travel blind' (Margaret Atwood). Examine the ways in which three of four poems create a 'mirror' of national or cultural identity. The mirror, according to the Collin's English Dictionary is a "surface that reflects light without diffusion and produces an image of an object placed in front of it. A thing that reflects or depicts something else." Mirror used as a verb means, "to reflect, represent or depict faithfully. A person may use a mirror to see what they look like. His or her physical features are portrayed on the surface of the mirror. The saying "a mirror does not lie" although outdated as well as overused is nevertheless true. The mirror shows all blemishes, 'warts and all' (Oliver Cromwell). It also shows the true beauty and wonder of a person. It depicts the intricacies, which can be examined and scrutinised. Used as a guide one looks to make one look more presentable. The mirror is an instrument used in the process of self-improvement. The figurative mirror then, which Margaret Atwood refers to, should be thought of in a similar fashion. A piece of art or poetry should act as a looking glass within which cultures and nations can seek identity. Poetry should enable them to look at their
A Summary For all the poems from a different cultures.
A Summary For all the poems from a different cultures Coursework Sujata Bhatt: from Search for My Tongue This poem (or rather extract from a long poem) explores a familiar ambiguity in English - "tongue" refers both to the physical organ we use for speech, and the language we speak with it. (Saying "tongue" for "speech" is an example of metonymy). In the poem Sujata Bhatt writes about the "tongue" in both ways at once. To lose your tongue normally means not knowing what to say, but Ms. Bhatt suggests that one can lose one's tongue in another sense. The speaker in this poem is obviously the poet herself, but she speaks for many who fear they may have lost their ability to speak for themselves and their culture. She explains this with the image of two tongues - a mother tongue (one's first language) and a second tongue (the language of the place where you live). She argues that you cannot use both together. She suggests, further, that if you live in a place where you must "speak a foreign tongue" then the mother tongue will "rot and die in your mouth". As if to demonstrate how this works, Ms. Bhatt rewrites lines 15 and 16 in Gujerati, followed by more Gujerati lines, which are given in English as the final section of the poem. For readers who do not know the Gujerati script, there is also a phonetic transcript using approximate English spelling to indicate the sounds. The
How do the poets represent the importance of 'roots' in their poetry? Consider how the social and cultural identity of the poets is paramount to the development of the main themes.
Other Cultures How do the poets represent the importance of 'roots' in their poetry? Consider how the social and cultural identity of the poets is paramount to the development of the main themes. The four poems that I will be comparing all describe how the poets feel about their roots, background and cultural heritage. Although they are all based on the same issue, they have many different features that are quite different. John Agard is the author of 'Half-Caste'. He was born in Guyana and then moved to Britain in 1977. In 'Half-Caste' the poet is feeling discriminated and he wants to put across that he is one person and by calling him half-caste, they are taking away half of his identity. The author of 'Search For My Tongue' is Sujata Bhatt. She was born in India in 1956 and then moved to the USA in the 1960s. She now lives in Germany. In 'Search For My Tongue' the poet can speak two different languages, her original language and her second language, English. She is saying that her original language is being forgotten, but then discovers that it is returning and progressing. 'Nothing's Changed' was written in South Africa in 1997 by Tatamkhulu Afrika. The poem is autobiographical and was written after apartheid had been abolished in 1994. In 'Nothing's Changed' the poet is saying that even though apartheid had been abolished, he still feels that racism is still around
I will compare two poems from completely different cultures to see if we get any comparisons, the poems I have chosen to write about are Half-Caste by John Agard and Search for my Tongue by Sujata Bhatt,
Culture. It's a very complicated term, with many different interpretations, but what does it actually mean? In this essay I will compare two poems from completely different cultures to see if we get any comparisons, the poems I have chosen to write about are Half-Caste by John Agard and Search for my Tongue by Sujata Bhatt, I have chosen these because I feel they raise some very significant points. But back to the question mentioned earlier, what is culture? Everyone has a different view on culture, but to me it is a huge influence on our everyday lives, many different issues contribute to the term 'Culture' from the way we dress, to our beliefs, attributes, how we live, and even what we eat. It affects us all differently depending on how we understand it, for example, if we were to believe that culture was just a religious matter we would only be affected by what that religion tells us, whereas if we were to believe that culture was a whole way of life we would be affected in a completely different way. Culture is important to us all, regardless of how we feel about it, it gives us a guide to our lives and shows us some boundaries; it can also give us advice and help us to be a better person. The word 'different' can be used in two contexts; we can say it both complimentarily and offensively, my understanding of this is that some people are afraid of what's different and
Discuss the ways in which culture and identity are presented in 'search for my tongue' and 'presents from my aunts in Pakistan'
Discuss the ways in which culture and identity are presented in 'search for my tongue' and 'presents from my aunts in Pakistan' In this essay I aim to discuss the ways in which culture and identity are presented in 'search for my tongue' and 'presents from my aunts in Pakistan' The first poem, 'search for my tongue' is written by a woman called Sujata Bhatt who was born in nineteen fifty six, in Ahmedabad, India. She emigrated to the United States of America in nineteen sixty eight. She is a very successful poet and translator of Gujarati and English and if that was not enough she is now living in Germany. Search for my tongue is a very unique poem as it suddenly changes from English to Gujarati half way through. The poem is about language and the effect of language when living in a different place with people speaking different languages. The word 'tongue' means two things. The first is the language one speaks and the other is the more obvious tongue in your mouth. Although this poem may have autobiographical content, its concerns have a much wider relevance. The first paragraph of 'Search for my Tongue' is written in the second person, which suggests a level of detachment. "You ask me what I mean by saying I have lost my tongue" is the first sentence of 'Search For My Tongue'. It is written as a reply to a question and the word tongue is used as a conventional
Looking at both "Presents From My Aunts In Pakistan" and "Search For My Tongue", there is a similarity between the poems because both poets have a shared experience of living between two cultures and these experiences led to the writing of the two poems.
Hayley Chadwick. Different Cultures Poetry Assignment. Looking at both "Presents From My Aunts In Pakistan" and "Search For My Tongue", there is a similarity between the poems because both poets have a shared experience of living between two cultures and these experiences led to the writing of the two poems. Moniza Alvi was born in Lahore, Pakistan in 1954 and was brought to England when she was only a few months old. Her Father was from Pakistan and her Mother was English. Alvi has said, "I never feel at entirely at home in England, and of course I'm not part of the Asian community." Alvi doesn't feel she belongs to any culture "Of no fixed nationality" and she writes about her own feelings in her poem Presents From My Aunts In Pakistan. Whereas Sujata Bhatt was born in India in 1956 and left for America at 12 years old where she was forced to speak another language and experienced a loss of culture, she has two ways of life and she fears she is losing her Indian way- she shows her feelings about this in her poem Search For My Tongue. In Presents From My Aunts In Pakistan, the first fifteens lines describe some presents sent to Alvi when she was a girl living in England which are two salwar kameez which are both bright and colourful, embossed slippers which are gold and black which shows signs of richness and wealth, an apple green sari which was silver bordered which
Write About How Sujata Bhatt and Moniza Alvi convey their views on different cultures in 'Presents From My Aunts In Pakistan' and 'Search For My Tongue'
Write About How Sujata Bhatt and Moniza Alvi convey their views on different cultures in 'Presents From My Aunts In Pakistan' and 'Search For My Tongue' For my essay I am going to compare 'Search For My Tongue' by Sujata Bhatt and 'Presents From My Aunts In Pakistan' by Moniza Alvi. 'Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan' is autobiographical. It is set in England where the author talks about and describes the presents that she receives from her Aunts who live in Pakistan. 'Search for my Tongue' is written while living in Germany but during her life Sujata Bhatt has had to speak three different languages. These are: Gujarati, English and German. She writes how she feels at the way that she has to lose or forget her original language which is Gujarati and only speak the language of the country that she is living in which is currently Germany and then she realises that although she has to speak German on the streets she doesn't have to speak it at home and she doesn't have to write or think in German. She realises that not speaking a language does not mean that you have lost your cultural identity. In 'Search for my Tongue' I think that Sujata Bhatt does not like having to belong to two cultures. The line ' if you lived in a place you had to speak a foreign tongue' reinforces this point. The words 'had to' suggest the fact that she is being forced to speak German when she really