Wow... Two posts in one month. What an improvement. I hope it can continue for at least a bit longer.
This was one of my first attempts at writing slam poetry way back in my freshman year and I performed it for my school's poetry jam that year. Even though I've gotten so much better at writing since then, this particular poem has a lot of significance to me. At the time of writing it, I was really trying to rework my life and let go of a lot of the weird decisions I made in middle school. In short, I wanted to be a new person but I knew that a couple of months was way too little time to become someone completely different from who I was. And I realized somewhere along my self-transformation journey was that the best way to move forward with my life was to make peace with the things I did back then and know that I am more mature and won't fall into the same habits. I have to admit that some of the best things that happened to me were during those three years and I kind of long for those times. This poem is an expression of the good times. It's an expression of the things I never want to forget.
There are some words in other languages that you just can’t translate even if you tried. They’re things you need to feel in order to understand the true meaning of. And when you try to find a quick equivalent to use in conversation, you try to substitute that word and the whole sentence suddenly doesn’t seem right. The whole thing works but it feels so wrong. If you think about it, some of these words are in your native language and you may use them so casually without thinking about what they mean. Their dictionary definitions have been distorted by the memories you associate with them so much that when you conjure up a definition, nothing but pure nostalgia comes to mind.
Comfort (n.) Summer nights spent carelessly talking on the phone with a best friend who makes it feel like everything will be fine, even if it won’t. It’s a school picnic at a park, getting spun faster and faster on a tire swing until you feel your head might just fall off.
Confidence (n.) The time you were given a ridiculous dare during lunch that might just expose your true nerdy identity but you did it anyways, earning one crumpled up dollar bill from the pocket of a friend that became a crush and who by eighth grade disappeared from your thoughts entirely.
Crush (n.) The boy you spent two years hesitating to talk to and secretly wanting to be with, even if you knew he only regarded you as a friend. You awkwardly brushed hands with him a few times over the course of two years, probably even having the chance to hug him on the last day of seventh grade when you packed up your backpack for the last time and finally said goodbye to the memories you had collected over the past many months.
Memories (n.) Eating a large ziplock full of candy with your lunch and not being able to think straight for the rest of the day. Throwing origami ninja stars made out of old study guides in homeroom when the teacher wasn’t there. Going home and remembering all of the stupid things you’d done during the school day and thinking you’d get to do all that again tomorrow. That is the intangible meaning that words bring to us. And over the span of cultures and languages, someone somewhere made words to explain all of that. So that no one could ever understand what they meant without knowing these feelings inside and out. And for the time being they’ll just be lost in translation.
This was one of my first attempts at writing slam poetry way back in my freshman year and I performed it for my school's poetry jam that year. Even though I've gotten so much better at writing since then, this particular poem has a lot of significance to me. At the time of writing it, I was really trying to rework my life and let go of a lot of the weird decisions I made in middle school. In short, I wanted to be a new person but I knew that a couple of months was way too little time to become someone completely different from who I was. And I realized somewhere along my self-transformation journey was that the best way to move forward with my life was to make peace with the things I did back then and know that I am more mature and won't fall into the same habits. I have to admit that some of the best things that happened to me were during those three years and I kind of long for those times. This poem is an expression of the good times. It's an expression of the things I never want to forget.
Lost in Translation
Comfort (n.) Summer nights spent carelessly talking on the phone with a best friend who makes it feel like everything will be fine, even if it won’t. It’s a school picnic at a park, getting spun faster and faster on a tire swing until you feel your head might just fall off.
Confidence (n.) The time you were given a ridiculous dare during lunch that might just expose your true nerdy identity but you did it anyways, earning one crumpled up dollar bill from the pocket of a friend that became a crush and who by eighth grade disappeared from your thoughts entirely.
Crush (n.) The boy you spent two years hesitating to talk to and secretly wanting to be with, even if you knew he only regarded you as a friend. You awkwardly brushed hands with him a few times over the course of two years, probably even having the chance to hug him on the last day of seventh grade when you packed up your backpack for the last time and finally said goodbye to the memories you had collected over the past many months.
Memories (n.) Eating a large ziplock full of candy with your lunch and not being able to think straight for the rest of the day. Throwing origami ninja stars made out of old study guides in homeroom when the teacher wasn’t there. Going home and remembering all of the stupid things you’d done during the school day and thinking you’d get to do all that again tomorrow. That is the intangible meaning that words bring to us. And over the span of cultures and languages, someone somewhere made words to explain all of that. So that no one could ever understand what they meant without knowing these feelings inside and out. And for the time being they’ll just be lost in translation.
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