Language Barrier by Kai Jensen

Kai Jensen reads his poem 'Language Barrier' 

This poem appears in 34-37 Degrees South 2025 - An Anthology of Poetry from members of the South Coast Writers Centre. 

Fresh words brought to you by the South Coast Writers Centre

Transcript

Language barrier by Kai Jensen

I’m settling down beside you for the night.

You say, I’ve taken my pill,

except you say it piw, with no l – what

I think of as a Sydney and south coast accent.

I try to mimic you, Piw, but you say, No,

it does have an l – listen. Piw.

I try a few more times.

What I say sounds, to my ear,

just like yours, but doesn’t satisfy you.

I curl beside you, my left hand hooked

inside your right elbow, while you keep reading.

As my thinking clouds I remember Tashi,

or was it Tenzin? – the lapsed monk

who tried to teach me Tibetan

during our stay in Dharamshala in 2003:

those four letters like a blend of P and B,

two with, two without aspiration.

All four sounded, to me, the same.

He was very patient, sitting on his cot

in his little windowless cellar room,

damp in the monsoon. Outside his door

there was a dish of food for the rats.