Accent Marks


Thrilling are
The accents over letters, such as
Márquez, Bolívar, letters po-rooskie,
en français, en español.
They're the foreignization,
making exotic but still familiar
(still vaguely understandable).
A letter can fill me with the
presentiment of a loquacious book
with liquid unpronouncable mouthfuls
of sloppy French in poor students
seen crystalized on a page
as an unbreakable symphony of edges,
slopes, and thought-out sounds to the eyes.
To the educated, with a native English
tongue in their heads and hearts,
these romanticized Roman letters are
familiar and dear,
and only appear dressed, as for a party,
in scrupulously punctuated works.

The sports channels began adding
punctuation to the telecast printed names of
ballplayers whose
names require accent marks.
Meanwhile, increasing pan-continental,
tout American, global trade
demands the respect for names afforded your
fellow citizens.
No misspellings of Smith assumes, for
politeness' sake, no misspellings of Alleñde.

There is romanticization of products
of culture.
Regard any pro-USA themed, USA produced
television show or movie.
While sickening to the saturated, it may hold for someone
the same appeal as the caramel-mouthed
sound of foreign words I get as I try their
exotic vowels (and occasional consonants)
like untasted candies.
I'm not quite a linguist,
perhaps a diletante of dialect.
I enjoy a rough understanding of human
communications,
and hope to enjoy myself sonically, visually,
in my small struggle to be understood.


Issue 21:
Accent Marks
Crossword Book
my map
Quotes
reading and nausea
Online Translation
Back to Negative SixX
©Eve Strain 2000. All rights reserved.