Poetry International Poetry International
Gedicht

Udaya Narayana Singh

The Familiar

As I read your body
page after page
the plot seems familiar;
as though it’s my own story.

I flip through my own nerves,
entrails, complexion;
and the songs of my depth
dust, spin and fall.

As I read on
I seem to know
every comma, semi-colon,
typo, spelling error –
all those that made
my sentences imperfect –
and even the glossary.

You said
you have no more
faith in words.

You said
you know only
the language of touch –
gentle, sweet, toxic, precarious –
the speech of caress,
but have forgotten
your own tongue
from speaking pidgin for ages,
the changeable grammar
of which shifts with time.

For centuries
I have had a raw feeling
which defies all names;

I shall live with this feeling
till it feels familiar!


9 October, 1994

THE FAMILIAR

Udaya Narayana Singh

Udaya Narayana Singh

(India, 1951)

Landen

Ontdek andere dichters en gedichten uit India

Gedichten Dichters

Talen

Ontdek andere dichters en gedichten in het Maithili

Gedichten Dichters
Close

THE FAMILIAR

The Familiar

As I read your body
page after page
the plot seems familiar;
as though it’s my own story.

I flip through my own nerves,
entrails, complexion;
and the songs of my depth
dust, spin and fall.

As I read on
I seem to know
every comma, semi-colon,
typo, spelling error –
all those that made
my sentences imperfect –
and even the glossary.

You said
you have no more
faith in words.

You said
you know only
the language of touch –
gentle, sweet, toxic, precarious –
the speech of caress,
but have forgotten
your own tongue
from speaking pidgin for ages,
the changeable grammar
of which shifts with time.

For centuries
I have had a raw feeling
which defies all names;

I shall live with this feeling
till it feels familiar!


9 October, 1994
Sponsors
Gemeente Rotterdam
Nederlands Letterenfonds
Stichting Van Beuningen Peterich-fonds
Prins Bernhard cultuurfonds
Lira fonds
Versopolis
J.E. Jurriaanse
Gefinancierd door de Europese Unie
Elise Mathilde Fonds
Stichting Verzameling van Wijngaarden-Boot
Veerhuis
VDM
Partners
LantarenVenster – Verhalenhuis Belvédère