“Louise Erdrich Learning Ojibiwemowin”

by Susan Blackwell Ramsey

Two thirds of Ojibiwemowin is verbs
      and nouns aren’t male and female, they’re living or dead.
(She’s learning the language so she’ll get the jokes.)
     The word for stone, asin, is animate.

If nouns aren’t male and female, but living or dead,
     what you think you know begins to shift.
Their word for stone, asin, is animate
     and that universe came from a conversation of stones.

Of course what you know will have to shift
     since every language has its limitations.
What’s geology but a conversation of stones?
     and even we know flint does speak to steel.

But every language has its limitations:
     French doesn’t really have a word for warm,
flint will only speak its sparks to steel,
     there’s no word for privacy in Chinese.

French has only tiede, which means lukewarm.
     Can you have a concept without the word?
Certainly there’s no privacy in China.
     So English added chutzpah, macho, chic,

until we grasped the concept, owned the word
     by borrowing it so long it felt like ours,
which takes chutzpah. Macho is learned, and chic
     can’t be taught, but both take a straight face –

borrow one until it feels like yours.
     It’s useful, too, for poker, tango, jokes,
all teachable skills improved by a straight face,
     by knowing what will concentrate your power.

What improves your poem, tango, jokes --
     she’s learning the language so she’ll get the jokes –
is knowing what will concentrate your power:
     two thirds of Ojibewemowin is verbs.