Bilingual/Bilingüe: a Poem by Rhina Espaillat

On Monday I was helping someone in the Writing Center with her paper analyzing the poem Bilingual/Bilingüe which is a very structurally interesting poem. Notice that the Spanish words are closed off from the English words until the very end. What does that say to you about the poem?

Bilingual/Bilingüe

by Rhina P. Espaillat

My father liked them separate, one there
one here (allá y aquí), as if aware

that words might cut in two his daughter’s heart
(el corazón) and lock the alien part

to what he was–his memory, his name
(su nombre)–with a key he could not claim.

“English outside this door, Spanish inside,”
he said, “y basta.” But who can divide

the world, the word (mundo y palabra) from
any child? I knew how to be dumb

and stubborn (testaruda); late, in bed,
I hoarded secret syllables I read

until my tongue (mi lengua) learned to run
where his stumbled. And still the heart was one.

I like to think he knew that, even when,
proud (orgulloso) of his daugher’s pen,

he stood outside mis versos, half in fear
of words he loved but wanted not to hear.

Written by Cali4beach

4 comments
  1. hey Cali4beach,
    can I ask you a question real quick? ok so you know how you have that Spanish word of the day? yea I want to make one for french…..can you tell me how you go it on there? hope you don’t mind….thanks very much

Leave a Reply