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20.04.2013 в 01:57
Пишет Нэт Старбек:Mary O’Malley - The Shape of Saying
They call it Received English
as if it was a gift you got
by dint of primogeniture.
Maybe it was. Old gold words
toned like concert violins,
tuned to talk to God.
After the French and Latin wars
I relished the poppies of Donne
though I thought this graceful foreign tongue
was only meant for men -
all right for the likes of Coleridge
but it gave me unpleasant dreams.
They say we cannot speak it
and they are right.
It was hard and slippery as pebbles,
full of cornered consonants
and pinched vowels, all said
from the front of the mouth -
no softness, no sorrow,
no sweet lullabies -
until we shook it by the neck and shook it.
We sheared it, carded it, fleeced it
and finally wove it
into something of our own,
fit for curses and blessings
for sweet talk and spite,
and the sound of hearts rending,
the sound of hearts tearing.
URL записиThey call it Received English
as if it was a gift you got
by dint of primogeniture.
Maybe it was. Old gold words
toned like concert violins,
tuned to talk to God.
After the French and Latin wars
I relished the poppies of Donne
though I thought this graceful foreign tongue
was only meant for men -
all right for the likes of Coleridge
but it gave me unpleasant dreams.
They say we cannot speak it
and they are right.
It was hard and slippery as pebbles,
full of cornered consonants
and pinched vowels, all said
from the front of the mouth -
no softness, no sorrow,
no sweet lullabies -
until we shook it by the neck and shook it.
We sheared it, carded it, fleeced it
and finally wove it
into something of our own,
fit for curses and blessings
for sweet talk and spite,
and the sound of hearts rending,
the sound of hearts tearing.