(Course Number)
However being hidden among the abundant and eloquent metaphors, the poet raises in the poem a wide range of issues. It may be noticed that according to the certain topics raised the mood of the poems gradually changes, too: firstly, the poet provides the flashbacks to the early childhood and praises mother tongue, depicting it as “a tender flower with lots of fragrances”, “an ornament for dignity and beauty of people”, “a playground for their incessant aspirations” (Laoti 1). The tone then changes when he illustrates the existence without a mother tongue: “Neither heart neither leaps up nor water springs out in the tribe’s land, ” “nor rises light” (Laoti 1). He claims that the one who forgets his origins is like “a bird without feathers”, doomed to decline and death. The loss of culture and tribe's extinction is described thus as an inevitable cause of the death of language. The conclusion is, though, not so gloomy, nut rather encouraging, Laoti calls to “keep it deep inside the heart”; “go ahead with devotions, and “sing together with tender voice in our mother tongue” (Laoti 2). The finishing lines go as follows: “Tribal welfare lies in it; let’s make it our destination (Laoti 2).”
There is a great depth in the poem as it provokes numerous thoughts considering cultural and social issues, the question of identity, the loss of culture and values. It made me reconsider my own attitude to my mother tongue, and urged me to pay a tribute to it. The poem also deepened my global mindset, as it included the elements of tribal culture and life. What is the most important, though, is that it motivated me to get some deeper knowledge of the history of tribes and their languages, including those who unfortunately became extinct: the unfortunate statistics tell that one language dies every fourteen days, which is both shocking and tragic.
Works Cited
“Quotes About Language.” Goodreads. 2016. Web. 15 Aug 2016.
Rymer, Russ. Vanishing Languages: Vanishing Voices. National Geographic. 2012. Web. 15 Aug 2016.
Yehang, Laoti. Mother Tongue.
