He'll

by Nathan Dueck

Eliding the English language and Plaut'dietsch, a dialect of German that developed along a delta of the Vistula River in Prussia during the early sixteenth century and spread to the Canadian prairies in the late nineteenth century, he'll is an apostrophe to Mennos. Because the mother tongue is unwritten, these poems express the paradox of Anglicizing an obscure vernacular - rather than impose inscription onto speech, they evoke Germanic sounds on the page. These fragments of pastoral lyrics and idyllic prose expose an irony of connection and Mennonites relate to each other - to their ethnicity, to their religion - with a colloquial discourse that isolates them from outsiders.he'll addresses the tale of a mailman found dead in a pile of letters he refused to deliver. Roman Dyck was the letter carrier for a Mennonite village located where the prairie sweeps into the Eastern corner of Manitoba. After his demise an anonymous translator and an investigator named "Nada" interpret the remains of the corpus. The letters themselves compose a posthumous critique of Mennonite ethnicity and religion, both influential in defining who identifies as "Menno," but also the reason each generation of Mennos will turn on their inheritance. Every ad from a catalogue, every measure from a hymnal, every ingredient in a recipe - every line marks an elegy to Plaut'dietsch."This is an abundance that invites abundance." --Robert Kroetsch

Genres: Poetry

94 pages, Paperback

First published May 12, 2014

Reviews

[Bronwyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought it for the smartest person I know because I know that’s not me. He loved it. So I do too

[Julienne]

Look for my upcoming review in Rhubarb.