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Ontology of our language

Naturally, when the placenta is cut The child is separated from mother However this isn't the case with us

Naturally, when the placenta is cut

The child is separated from mother

However this isn't the case with us

We are never separated from our mother

Only those who fed on surplus

Grow up, separated from mother

We grow up inheriting the sound of her pain

The sound which never reached the fate

Of a language on paper

Our handsome Bodhisattva taught us:

Not talking to one’s mother is a horrible form of

Alienation from our existence

Therefore we understood:

Mother tongue is essentially the sound

We inherit when inside her abdomen

Language is a just a suitable rendition

Of that sound

My grandfather had a hammer

My father had the steering wheel

I have a pen

But we have been writing the same language

The language of our mother

Missing from the history of our existence

Author avatar
Yogesh Maitreya
Yogesh Maitreya is a poet, translator, curator, and PhD scholar at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. He is a founder of Panther’s Paw Publication, the first anti-caste/English publication from Maharashtra which primarily focuses on English translation of Dalit Literature.
December 20, 2021
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