Poetry Writing from The Speaker of English as a Foreign Language's Point of View
To be honest, I do not really write English poetry very much. First reason is my English is so Indonesian (or even Javanese?) since I did not acquire my English from any formal schools. It is quite hard for me to construct sentences as naturally as the native speakers do. Perhaps that is the reason why my English poems are usually unnatural in their expressions. Somehow, I do not take this as a burden either, since English is never my natural language--it is still very foreign to me up to now. This linguistic obstacles are not only present in my English poetry writing, they also occur in my Javanese one. Yes, I was born Javanese and educated in Javanese too. Yet, my formal education did not care much on Javanese language. The mother tongue now becomes my second language. It shocked me big time when I tried to write geguritan, the Javanese poetry, I found it so difficult. The complexity of Javanese language versus the simplicity of Indonesian --my present primary language-- is somehow equal to the foreignness of English language versus the nativeness of Indonesian.
The only reason why I insist to write in both languages, Javanese and English, besides in Indonesian is that I take poetry as my "religion". My upbringing has laid a strong foundation for my being Javanese and this is something I take seriously in my life. My spiritual bond with Javanese agricultural values has enlightened me to the awareness as a member of the universe. That to some extend brought me the need to learn other cultures. My first choice of other language to learn fell onto English. So Javanese, Indonesian, and English have become integrated parts of my linguistic awareness and I've been working on integrating those languages into my poetry writing.
Writing English poems is still very hard for me. So is with Javanese poems. The inferiority caused by my lacking of English cultural experience has forced me to write in my own way, my own sense of diction, my personally invented idioms. I pay less attention to the fact that native English speakers might find some bizarre expressions in my poetry. I keep my optimism that some likely unusual expressions in my poetry might, on the contrary, offer fresh yet local taste of English, especially in poetry.
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TSP - www.titiknol.com
to be more 'english' than 'English'
that's what, like concluded in 'the empire writes back', the more appropriate term and appreciation for english writings by non-English.
there will be a gab, there will be 'bizzare' expressions, there will be different song of words and images.. that's not the peripheral of English-that's the great variance!
the difference is worthy appreciated as difference.
non-english writer's inferiority complex
still, wahmuji, the sense of freedom to write in english needs fighting for. this inferiority that i strongly feel is still there, still lies at the bottom of colonialized mentalities waiting to be emancipated. i'm sometimes still bothered by the sense of "participating in global culture" by writing in english, as if english were a mere "standard" of one's modernness, as if we really owed the west our civilization. how strong this englishness still affect non-english writers somehow contributes a big deal to my reluctance to write in english. "the empire writes back" sounds quite tempting to read. i've even made a xeroxed copy of that book. yet, my another reluctance, namely "reading literature theories", still holds me back from reading it. hehehe... this laziness to read, is it also an indication of postcolonial syndrome?
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TSP - jangan pernah percaya teori
www.titiknol.com
english?
often, anything in postcolonial countries being 'bad' in the eyes of 'western humanism' is, I think, 'the unseen beauty'.
we did not - and do not - owe the west our civilization. they owed us (physically and mentally). "Europe is the creation of the Third World Countries".
using english is the way to comprehend, not to worship its whole concepts.
anyway, we are using english now. haha..
It is language
I trully agree that the idea of foreignness comes to appear within our universal discourse as a consequence of the languange that preexist it, as in other words, the language constitutes it, since any discourse must have its own structure. Since the very beginning of our acknowledgement with language - that is our departure in the universe of discourse - we are already introduced with the idea of Other or Foreignness, as represented by a mother - a mother tongue. Here, not to say for a mere english language, language does both obey and disobey the structures it constitutes, and so be it : the unconscious.
Sorry bothering you guys with this theory, at least to let me know that I still manage myself to work on this subject. hahaha...
We are in our coexistence with the language, the Other, the Foreignness !
anyway, the way we fight is start with the way we learn. This interests me to read you guys
But later, it reminds of the George Orwell's words that occur apparently in bang Saut's recent writings:
"During times of universal deceit,
telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act"
cupcup yeyeye - galangwijaya
wow!
susah aja jadi orang indonesia, mau ngobrol soal bahasa inggris aja pake bahasa inggris. wah maap juragan, kita gak ngerti tuh bahasa menir-menir begitu..
dalangpotehi
@dalangpotehi: if a post started in english you should reply it with the same language. be consistent. thanks
sorry
sorry boss...
...
first of all, mas pinang, my mind is confusingly twisted by your statement suggesting the notion of "natural" and "unnatural" quality of writing poetry in english. we should define, previously, what is meant by being natural or unnatural in producing literary text, in this case poems using english as the lingua (though i guess the effort of determining the definition of those qualities will always result in fragile ones). in a glance, i understood that your idea about natural english-poem writing is, probably, referring to that of canonical ones: sonnets by shakespeare, "alba" (dawn-song) by donnes, poems by alexander pope, d.h. lawrence, and so on and so forth. nonetheless, in this postmodernist realm, i merely do not think that those archaic writings are still placed in the freezing paramount peak of good, thus natural, english poetry--since the authors are english or american.
i agree that mother tongue will be the exclusively installed language for human. however, this statement might be doubtful when confronted to certain special cases:for instance, a 50 year-old-indonesian-born man that immigrated to an english speaking country when he was ten years old might recognize more english vocabularies rather than those of indonesian, though his mothertongue is Bahasa. this is due to the language acquisition process experienced by that particular man in the english speaking area he has been living in. the time duration spent to speak the language (english: 40 years, Bahasa: 10 years), the intensity and frequency of pronouncing and learning the language's grammatical concept, and the language daily exposed to him (english), may also contribute better competence and performance in english proficiency.
nevertheless, in this last decade, it is so common that neurologists found it interesting that, in the case of someone who suffers from amnesia, the mother tongue is the only lingua the patient can speak. This "pseudo-shocking" phenomenon has actually been ubiquitous.
one's richness of diction of a language is not strictly depending on what her or his mothertongue is. there are many factors influencing it. yet, in most cases, since most of the people are exposed to their mother tongue far more than to other languages, statistics will show that most language speakers in this planet feel it easier to explore and express thoughts in their own mothertongue. and, this case also puts effect in poetry writing. as you suggested, mas, you blame your "so Indonesian-english" for the awkwardness of the dictions used in your english poems. it is funny since this kills creativity in playing around with the language. moreover, observing the way you write english texts, take this blog as an example, i absolutely do not find any "unnatural" syntax and semantics of you english.
in my opinion, poetry is a media to explore language. there is no reason to feel inconfident to write someting in certain language that we considered not as our original mothertongue. i guess, in modern poetry, authors also always attempt to do the same thing as you commit on your poems: personally inventing idioms, dictions, phrases, etc. remember that poets are administered the "poetica licensia" as their pass-card to be exploratively creative in using language as a means of expression. your poem, "hazzy night", as i have commented, owns creative phrases that even an english native speaker would hardly think of.
mas, why do you feel forced when using your personal dictions and idiom? your lacking of english cultural experiences, yes, to a certain extent, will affect the miscellanea of your bank of words. yet, it will be even belaboring to be "natural" if you are counting on english cultural experiences when trying to express something very much Indonesian, for instance.
though language is performing essential role in text writing, but, in the case of poetry, sometimes it should be treated more inferiorly than the message. what i mean is that language should not be, as you say, a burden that "assasinates" your optimism.
exposing ourselves frequently to english texts and circumstances will help enhancing the variousness of our word and word-arrangement knowledge. i know from your motto that you are a man of "no theory". if theoretical books or discussion bother you, why not literary texts?
it is relieving that, in the end of your writing in this blog, you perform a sense of optimism. yup, in postcolonial countries, optimism should be maintained in order to keep the inhabitants alive!
bravo!!!
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