Mirrors

Mirrors

for deda Yura

Ere more a rumor, roam my armory: A memory a room -- amour et murs; Miró, Marot, Marat, et Mérimée Mirés aux mares, amarrés aux rameaux; 荒い海を洗う mains; 丸い мира 丸い耳; Māori morae or Ameri-rhyme И меряемый Реомюром ум... Марая, я 守る mon royaume, Mais мимо армии и Муаммары Roam more--et même a mirror-room 終わる:     Immer amèrement my merry rhyme, Aurant un rhume, meurt en murmurant, Et mort, もう生まれられる。

My rhymes, though mired in myriads of remoras, Remain unmoored in macaronic murk: Marrants, mignons--ou morts?  The modern Roma Or mere mome raths, unmasterful ephemera, Манимы мерным ветром метронома? But never mind my murmured fears; смотри: He mauri tā te reo that mirrors matter; En marche, mots! maturing, ever madder; Id a mi hermano con la madrugada А к деду -- au midi de symmetrie Во времени, où rient les heures et まだ Ha du remords a near-immortal ember В мерцаньи чьем я смастерю a smirk For my moai sans âme ou airs: "remember?"

Explanation -- spoilers, if you are so inclined -- follow.

Ere more a rumor, roam my armory: A memory a room -- amour et murs; Miró, Marot, Marat et Mérimée Mirés aux mares, amarrés aux rameaux; Viewed in puddles, tied off to branches; 荒い海を洗う mains; arai umi wo arau ... Hands that wash dry seas; 丸い мира 丸い耳; marui mira marui mimi The round ears of a round world; Māori morae or Ameri-rhyme И меряемый Реомюром ум... I merjaemyj Reomjurom um... And a mind measured in Réaumur... Марая, я 守る mon royaume, maraja, ja mamoru ... By scribbling, I protect my realm  Mais мимо армии и Муаммары ... mimo armii i Muammary But past, armies and Muammars   Roam more--et même a mirror-room 終わる: ... owaru ... and even ... ends Immer amèrement my merry rhyme, Ever sorrowfully ... Aurant un rhume, meurt en murmurant, Down with a cold, dies murmuring Et mort, もう生まれられる。 ... mō umarerareru. And once dead, may be reborn again.

My rhymes, though mired in myriads of remoras, Remain unmoored in macaronic murk: Marrants, mignons--ou morts?  The modern Roma Funny, cute--or dead? Or mere mome raths, unmasterful ephemera, Манимы мерным ветром метронома? Manimy mernym vetrom metronoma? Beckoned by the smooth wind of the metronome?  But never mind my murmured fears; смотри: ... smotri: ... look:  He mauri tā te reo that mirrors matter; The language has a spirit ... En marche, mots! maturing, ever madder; Forward, words! ... Id a mi hermano con la madrugada Come to my brother with the dawn А к деду -- au midi de symmetrie A k dedu ... and to Grandfather at noon, a symmetry Во времени, où rient les heures et まだ Vo vremeni ... mada in time, where hours laugh, and still  Ha du remords a near-immortal ember There's of remorse ... В мерцаньи чьем я смастерю a smirk V mercan'i č'em ja smasterju ... In whose glimmering I'll cobble together ...  For my moai sans âme ou airs: "remember?" ... without soul or expressions ...

On Māori: the only time I've heard it spoken was at the Polynesian Cultural Center on Oahu, during high school.  The word Aotearoa struck me with the way it was pronounced essentially in three syllables despite having six distinct vowels.  It seemed fitting, then, to parse such syllable-like entities as long syllables in a classical-style iamb.  Hence, Māori morae -- though I confess that I wrote that bit before realizing the elegant justification, and that a good portion of the poem was a slave to those two words.

Japanese, on the other hand, got one mora per syllable of meter, since that's how they like to write.

On transliteration: I struggled for a while trying to decide how to transliterate Russian, avoided the question for a bit by using IPA, decided that was unreasonable and switched to the standard library transliteration, which has the advantage of not being transparently phonetic.