Monday, March 27, 2017

O Portunhol

[portunhol surenho]

Escrevo en idioma bastardo,
seguramente non é el mío,
escreverlo é desafío,
lerlo é un lío,
Qué infernal lunfardo!

I write in a bastard language,
it certainly isn't mine,
to write it is a challenge,
to read it is a hassle,
What a hellish slanguage!

Note: Rather than a single language, Portunhol is a dialect continuum that exists along thousands of kilometers of Brazil's border with its Spanish-speaking neighbors. My dialect, a work in progress, shares some of the features of the Portuguese of southern Brazil, as well as many features of the Spanish of Uruguay, where I live. It is not the same as the Portunhol of Rivera, or as that of Artigas. I believe the only dialect that has been formally studied is that of Rivera, Many dialects have probably never been reduced to writing, but I am trying to make a literary language of mine, which I call portunhol surenho. This poem is just humor; the truth is that I love the language.

A Curse on Spell-checkers

I know there was never a need
to separate practise from practice.
But "supersede" and "proceed"
are differently sourced,
and our hand should never be forced
by lexicographer praxis
or an ignorant spell-checker axis.
My language has been superseded,
and I know it well,
but spell-checkers,
ye little feckers,
can all proceed to hell!

27 March 2017
LVI.
O número do Bobo é zero,
y dá os termos de su reinado.
"Arcanum" est nomen eius.
Que nos ashude Deus!

Zero is the number of the Fool,
and it gives the terms of his rule.
"Arcanum" is his name.
May God help us!

29 de agosto 2016