Two little teeny-weeny black ink dots.
So strange. They looked accidental
Üp here, down there; two proud little jabs
With the point of my fountain pen.
If I had my way, I said wide-eyed at eleven,
I’d püt them ön ëvërÿthïng-
Speckle my childish essays with a hail of them,
A liberal rain of chocolate drops upon the soft sponge of my stories.
Nein, sagt den Lehrer lachend. Save them for German.
Foreign, mysterious to my untrained eye;
Yet significant- ‘was’ into ‘would be’, ‘train oil’ to ‘tears’,
Casual as a change of clothes, the flick of a switch.
I grew up but never outgrew my passion.
Became a linguist, wissenshungrig,
Seeking new links between texts and tongues.
My toils won me a tome of a dictionary;
So many new words to curve my lips, with difficulty, around.
Exam time: I frantically jabbed my paper
Left a ghost-umlaut imprinted on the desk.
Time progressed, my friends went their separate ways.
Not my languages; we grew closer still, more intimate.
Each umlaut now a demure peck on the cheek
In a letter to my German lover.
His own in reply blurred into efficient lines,
Missiles of rapid communication from his Wehrdienst rifle.
Always so practically-minded. Whatever attracted him to
This hopeless little umlaut-loving romantic?
Comments
NaziWifebeater | May 12, 2009 - 21:44
Ich liebe Umlauete auch, aber ungluecklicherweise koennen meine englische Tastatur sie nicht schreiben!
I may not be deutschfliessend, but can you really say "Nein, sagt den Lehrer lachend"? - It must be 'der Lehrer', the nominative and not the accusative, because it's the teacher who performs the action of the verb 'sagen', rather than Nein saying the teacher. And are you sure about 'lachend'? It may be correct, but I'm not sure. I know the Germans don't use the continuous tense or whatever the scheisse it's called very often, like we do.
I like the images of umlauts as chocolate drops or pecks on cheeks.
Is there a German word for 'train oil'?? Tranen??
_lynze_ | May 13, 2009 - 17:50
I'm afraid...NaziWifebeater...(erm.) is quite right about his cases, like i dunno...the boy eats the food, the boy is doing the eating, yet the food is being verbed=acc.
But, wow, all of that from two little drops, i haven't finished reading it yet, but its really good, i love the lines
Üp here, down there; two proud little jabs
With the point of my fountain pen.
If I had my way, I said wide-eyed at eleven,
I’d püt them ön ëvërÿthïng-
Speckle my childish essays with a hail of them,
A liberal rain of chocolate drops upon the soft sponge of my stories.
Thats as far as i've got so....
Awww and the last line!!!! That's so sweet.
And you're very lucky to still have that passion, i want mine back =/
But well done, a most deserving poem!
xxxxx
Lem | May 14, 2009 - 19:39
As Lynze, who also commented, knows well, I have never understood the cases. I have been studying them for months with multiple teachers, revising all afternoon trying to perfect them for my exam tomorrow- alles vergebens. So.....you are not German, but have a passion for the language, like me?
NaziWifebeater | May 14, 2009 - 21:18
Mmmm yes, lovely lovely German.
yrene | May 16, 2009 - 04:08
Oh I love this piece! The umlaut is very likeable, I must say. It's like a happy face that is so very cute. Über cute. I have an Onkel in Deutschland and I'm fond of Germany's language, food and culture. Thanks for sharing your wonderful talent. It was such a very nice read! Have fun with your umlauts.
(^_^)
best regards,
yReNe
Kahdai | January 2, 2010 - 17:16
<3 yü