Abhijit Naskar's Blog - Posts Tagged "bilingual"

My brain is multilingual,
my heart is multicultural,
my life is multidimensional,
I exist for I dissolve in all.

You barely speak one language,
ramble doctrines from one dead book,
can’t see beyond the customs of your tribe,
yet you say, your truth is the cosmic truth!

Fanaticism is compensation for insecurity,
supremacy is compensation for inferiority.
Over a hundred books, thousands of sonnets,
half a thousand limericks, half a thousand
free verse poems, yet I still say, I’m incomplete.

Patriot beyond nation,
religious beyond religion,
cultured beyond culture –
that’s a complete human.

Conscience is my CV,
Biodata, Bulldozer,
Revolution, my resume,
Citizenship, Earthistana.

Hindistan bana can verdi,
Amerika bana şan verdi,
Türkiye bana kalp verdi,
ve Dünya bana amaç verdi.

En sevdiğim kitap Mesnevi,
en sevdiğim şair Mevlana,
en sevdiğim dil Türkçe –
yinede derviş, şair, hepsi sonra,

öncelikle ben insan, iyilik benim iman;
mundo mi monasterio, annihilation my azan.

I switch cultures like clothes,
I switch sciences like pens.
I switch scriptures like tides,
I switch languages like seasons.

Service of humanity is supreme shahada,
to defend the persecuted is cosmic khalsa,
to treat neighbor as god is real dharma,
quiet kindness is the real karma.

Ana al-haqq, ana al-hub –
aham bindu, aham brahmanda.
I shed dogma like dead skin,
el cosmos es mi casa.

Languages are not ornaments,
languages are organs,
channeling spirit from the heart.

Language is highway to a culture,
language requires a vessel, not translator.
Soon earbuds will feature instant translation,
which will render crosscultural conversation seamless,
but at the same time, lifeless, hollow and cold.

Until we develop the brain technology
to communicate meaning telepathically
without talking, no amount of translation
can carry the warmth, nuances and
sentiment of a lived language.

As added perk, speaking more than one language
delays age-related cognitive decline.
Therefore no matter how you look at it,
one broken second language is far more
valuable than all the mass-produced subtitles.

How will you know if you
can speak another language?

If you can curse someone
on impulse without memorizing,
you got the language in your gut.
If you can console someone in pain,
the language nestles in your heart.

No es necessario que hablar guapisimo,
solamente necessario que hablar amable.
All those pedestals of language levels,
a, b, z, and what not, are elitist garbage.

Chase after form,
and you’ll miss the soul –
throw yourself into the soul,
and neurons will regrow.

Forget grammar, forget vocabulary,
let the language seep into your bloodstream.
In a world infested with medal-seeking mules,
stand odd, stand ablaze, a drunken pilgrim.