Poetry at Sangam

Poetry at Sangam showcases poetry in English and translations as well as essays on poetics and news of new releases.

WE SPEAK TO FISH USING NATIONAL LANGUAGES by Chow Teck Seng

I speak to the fish in the bowl in the National Language
Each vowel beating like wind against glass
Each accent dancing like mosquitoes

My watch shows each second rising, teeming, like wind and smoke

1950’s English is the colonial language
Imagining the National Language, let us speak Malay
1965’s National Language: English? Malay? Both?

Every place on the map chokes with smoke, where is there a safe place for us?

Straits Settlements     Federation of Malaya   Malaya   Malaysia
Taiwan Republic of China
Temasek Singapura Singapore
Please read after me
Nation – NAT-ION
You have your National Language, I have mine
Each tongue is alive, free from officialise

We sit at a round table practising the National Language
The fish in the round round bowl pout with round round goldfish mouths

The fish are tongues in mouths, squirming like snakes

Sometimes with lips shaped like “O”, other times no
When the mouth is round:
it is yu, it is language, it is Bahasa Melayu, it is U

When the mouth isn’t round:
it is ikan, it is English, it is Inilah Singapura

 

1. ikan, Malay word for “fish”.
2. Inilah Singapura, “This is Singapore” in Malay

(Translated from Chinese by Yeo Wei Wei)

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