A Futile Legacy
(for
an un-English mother in dangerous dreams)
Can
you paint yourself red fond of English?
or
dare walk into these Indian streets
in a
perfect English attire?
Can
you speak English English?
Can
a language however resplendent and glorious
substitute
the language of heart
and
the voice of your ancestors?
Isn't
the mother-tongue of the Jaravas of the Andamans
as
good to them as English to the English?
or
Telugu to the Andhras?
Like
a mighty banyan struggling to uproot itself
in a
bid to reach the sky
you
carry your own offspring
towards
some unreachable horizons
of a
great language
where
I'm
afraid
these
poor children
will
beg one day
for
a mother-tongue
on
some barren lands of alienation
or
somewhere in the furrows
between
humans and animals
and
be a bunch of ridicule.
Isn't
this like forcing them
to
live in space without a foothold?
Isn't
this a dangerous legacy
which
once again originates
in a
root cause of uprooting of civilizations?
Won't
they miss the essence of life
and
some divine missions?
Do
you not feel that you need
a
bed of your mother-tongue
to
dream of an alien language?
A
gift of one hundred tongues
needs
a linguistic shelter of your own.
Let
them not be victims of your pride and vanity.
It
isn't too late mother!
Open
your eyes before they speak these
poor
kids a
language
patched with Dravidian fragments of English.
Sreekanth Kopuri is born in
Machilipatnam, India. He had his schooling in Nirmala High School
Machilipatnam, Masters from Andhra University and PhD from Sri
Venkateswara University, India. He taught English Literature & Language at
Dravidian University, Bapatla Engineering College and Sri Vasavi Institute of
Engineering & Technology India. He has come out with an anthology of his
poems The Shadows. His Second Book The Void will
be released world wide in October 2018 by Partridge Publishing. His poems were
published in India and abroad. He presented his research papers in many
reputed universities like Oxford University United Kingdom, University of Caen
France, Banja Luka University Bosnia and Herezegovina, University of Gdanski
Poland and others. He was the reciepient of Dr. J.K. International Award for 2014, from India for his
achievements in poetry. Sreekanth Kopuri presently Lives in Machilipatnam
dividing his time between teaching and creative writing. His areas of interest
are Postmodern Poetry, Ekphrasis Poetry, Silence, Holocaust Poetry, Quantum Art
Poetry and Christian Literature.
Tags:
Poetry