arts & ego blog
german

I’m (re)learning German. I’m two weeks into a two month course, and I’m crap at it. It’s where I expected to be. I’m mixing my Dutch and German like slops in cheap lager.

I’m under attack from the word changes, using the right modification in the right place. It seems so complicated and awkward.

But you know what I see? I see immense potential for poetry. If the word itself makes the contextual meaning clear, the word order is there for the poetry. You can’t do this in English; word order specifies meaning, mucking around with word order reduces meaning. It also allows words to work at a deeper, musical level, or so my poetry (hopefully) shows…I believe.

I can see why German is such a good language for poetry. All I need do is learn, learn, learn…