I’ve been listening to a lot of music in languages I’m not fluent in lately, and I’ve been spending time wondering about poetry that uses language the author isn’t fluent in. Is it enough to value the language sonically, or does the poet have to know the meaning behind the words they are using? Is it enough for a poet to want to play with language and sound, or does writing in another language involve a certain amount of responsibility on the part of the author to familiarize them self with those words? On one hand, I want to say that poetry for the sake of sound should be just as reverent as poetry with the word itself and its meaning in mind, but I also know that what I value as a poet isn’t necessarily what other people value.
For example, I’ve been spending a lot of time with French music, simply because the sound of the syllables is so foreign to the way we speak English, and the speaking itself seems less precise and more intuitive. I really appreciate the way that letters on the page in French don’t necessarily translate to sounds we make with our mouths, and the ways that sounds can change, even with languages that use the same alphabet. If I were to incorporate some French words I’ve had floating around in my head, words I’ve heard in songs and that I love the sound of, would it be wrong for me as a poet to include those words because I’m not aware of their meaning? Or is the sound of a word enough of an explanation for its inclusion? This has been a question I’ve puzzled over for a long time, and I’d really like to hear from other poets (and non-poets) on this issue!