The author and I have many similarities, she is the eldest daughter and although she was brought to her new country as baby and I was born here, our mothers both emigrated from their countries as young, new mothers due to political oppression.
My mother tongue, the language my mother spoke when she had me is Vietnamese. And I know how to write, read, and speak it, however, I speak an overly formal and sometimes awkward version of it that I did not know was awkward until I went to Vietnam and heard others speaking. The formality and awkwardness of it is a reflection of my relationship with my parents as child. The first stanza reminds me of this fact. And although my execution of it is awkward, I still find Vietnamese beautiful as there are many words and phrases that have no English translation for me, i truly connect to it.
The second stanza really reminds me of how my mom always told me when I was around ten years old that if I were living in Vietnam, I would know how to cook rice by now – because I am a girl. And she would try to teach me how to cook traditional Vietnamese dishes, but the recipe never had clear measurements, just a little bit of this and a pinch of that. I’ve never been able to produce my mom’s fish sauce dip – it always turns out too sour or too sweet.
Third stanza – as a child I spoke only Vietnamese to my mom so I always felt she understood my words. However, growing up in Western culture in a Vietnamese household left a lot of room for misunderstanding. Not in my words, but in my values and how I wanted to act on those values. I was never allowed to wear the latest fashions because they were too revealing, I had to lie to go to prom or even to hangout with my friends at the park. It always had to be school related. I was constantly shouting, “Mama, I want to be normal” – but she simply would not and could not understand me.
https://sandjournal.com/one-poem-two-translations/ (Links to an external site.)
Prompt 1: “rewrite/translate the poem” – loose
Prompt 2: Write about being misunderstood as a child