Language Barriers

 

If only men should think in different tongues
Than those they speak, for then, before they gassed,
The precious moment of translation’s pause,
When letters rearrange and syntax morphs –
The measure of each word examined close,
Perhaps the meaning rises from repose.
It’s possible to conjugate unthinking,
To drop the ending, add an “o” and gab,
But within robotic grammar transformations
It’s possible you’ll stop and use your head.
If activate your brain you must to switch
From English into French, then, By Webster!
Your brain will have the dimmest, slimmest chance
To Choose if words devised in foggy England,
Deserve to dark the cloudless skies of France.