I’m currently learning (by immersion) a second language. Too many times, I experience that were I to invite someone into the knowledge of something I am sharing, in English, it would have been carried along on poetic overtures.
Instead, in the new language, I stammer out truncated, baby-like phrases, strung together in a rigid, literal formation.
This was one such conversation, but in the ripples of human inflection, I hear and speak far more than words.
I hear feigned honesty, or when the spoken word is used to conceal blind spots in character, composure, or courage.
Language. Letters were borne from muted desires to speak. To pour Babel into the mouths of babies.
If you studied their cries and crinkle-eyed smiles long enough, you can read them without letters, and understand sin lenguaje.
So, though, I am a babe in one, I am well-studied in the other, and this informs el significado.
He may say, ‘pero es su decision..’ and that is clear enough—‘but it is your decision’. I see that it is draped in persuasion, and hinged on guilt.
If he could plant enough doubt in my mind, then I will make the choice he wants me to make.
In the matter we were discussing, this was him trying to make me choose his option by creating uncertainty around any of my others.
“Pero es tu decision’.
Sí. Decepción.
Ya no confío en él.
Leave a Reply