maki

“Some things could only be written in a foreign language; they are not lost in translation, but conceived by it. Foreign verbs of motion could be the only ways of transporting the ashes of familial memory. After all, a foreign language is like art—an alternative reality, a potential world. »

If we put aside the idea of a “true self,” because that is a discussion in its own right, from my reading and research few exophonic writers ever speak about freedom of expression in such terms… what the other language provides is detachment. And by detaching oneself from their writing (from the emotional background of chosen words, their socio-historical significance, familial usage etc), what these writers report is another point of view, a newfound clarity. Which isn’t limited to learning/using another language, it can be achieved through any sort of displacement. But it is no wonder these often come together, the new language and displacement, in whichever order that may be. In many cases the othe

careers under capitalism

i hope everything works out in the end because i am so so scared

When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.