It is hard to believe that there are only two days left in this course. After Friday’s dinner (which is a bit formal and I felt out of place last year when I showed up in only a T-shirt) each class performs some kind of skit or song or poem in Romansch. I decided to write a poem about my experiences as a Canadian enrolled in the Romansch course. I ran it by my teacher for errors and I will give you all a sneak preview. Since I have decided to recite my poem solo (and also fully memorized –yikes!) my five classmates will do a poem of their own.
I tell you, I never would have thought that I’d be writing poetry in Romansch two weeks ago. What a course this is! Let’s hope I play only English words at the upcoming National Scrabble Championship in Phoenix in August as my mind has been overrun by Romansch.
Try to translate the poem, then look at the translation.
Miu lungatg mumma ei buc tudestg
Tut quei ch’jeu sai dir ei “Engraziel fetg”.
Jeu admirel la Svizra e sia cultura
Loschamein sia glieud lavura.
Mes pensums da casa fetsch jeu mintga notg
Jeu less gleiti esser el livel…otg.
Adina cu jeu audel
La canzun da Conradin, jeu bragel.
Mias empremas duas scolastas ein Manuela ed Irina
Per vossa amicabladad sun jeu engrazieivels adina.
My mother tongue is not German
All I can say is “Thank-you”. [1]
I admire Switzerland and her culture
Proudly her people work.
I do my homework every night
Soon I’d like to be in level…eight. [2]
Whenever I listen to
Conradin’s song I cry. [3]
My first two teachers are Manuela and Irina
For your friendship I am eternally grateful.
[1] Poetic licence. I can speak a lot more German than that, however my inability to understand the various
dialects of Swiss German has left me feeling pretty much out of the loop.
[2] The highest level of this course is level seven.
[3] Conradin Klaiss, who teaches level six, wrote a song called “Sche ti carezas mei”, which translates to “If You Love Me”. Each time I hear this song it brings me to tears. My teacher played it for the class last week and I was one teardrop away from bawling my eyes out.