The use of Language and Translation within "Thirteen Ways of Looking at TheBus"

Jessica St. Martin

I found it interesting that in the poem "Bustainabillity" the speaker visually sounds out long difficult English words, like "trans-por-ta-tion," "con-ges-ted," "ex-cel-lent," and "re-pu-ta-tion," forcing the reader to sound out the words with her. This connects us to the general distance placed between non-English speakers and complicated English words. Also within "Dear God: A Prayer in Six Parts," instead of catering to an English audiences demand for literature written in English, the speaker fully transforms her poetry into language so saturated with the pidgin speaking culture that we must transform our own view of poetry and the speaker in order to understand where the poem is taking us. The English speaking audience is forced to slow down and sound out every syllable in our heads to be able to make sense of each sentence, the same way a non-English speaking audience would be required to while reading English literature.

The refusal to translate Hawaiian words, and even the inclusion of a separate version of "A Bus of MyGod" in a language which appears to be Filipino, comments on the need to expand the use of various languages and cultures within literature to avoid the importance placed upon knowing English in order to participate in reading and analyzing literature.

I keep wondering why every poem we read that is written in pidgin feels like a whining teenage diary entry.  I want to read something not based on someone complaining to the reader in first person. Why don't these poems go further than what English audiences might expect from a pidgin peaking culture?