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30 Soobrayen totheirskinslikebeadsof sweat. Hundredsof tongues parchedlikethemouthsof sweetheartsinanarranged ceremony. Sheiskindandruthlessandinsists ontheQueen’sEnglish. AtnightCreoleverveslipsin andmakesmischief. With French as its base language, Mauritian Creole has alsobeeninfusedwithcontributions fromEnglish, Malagasy, Chinese and Indian languages. In 1880 Charles Baissac describedtheporousdefiantnatureof MauritianCreoleinhis studyPatoiscrééole:‘Creoleallowsanythingtobesaid,recognises everything.Butafterallits capitulationson thepublicstage, it comes backhome, shuts its door, resumes its personality, its individual originality, soqualitéé mêême, asitsays.’ It has left its pidginstatus to become the stable mother tongueofsubsequentgenerations.TodayitisknownasKreolor Moriysenandis spokenwidelyinMauritius. WhileFrenchis thelanguage of popular cultureandEnglishthelanguage of Government, Creoleremainsinthehomesandstreetsanditis at the heart of people’s lives with its riddling nature and directness. Althougha dictionaryhas beendeveloped, it has resistedattempts tolegitimiseitself fullyintopubliclifeand schools. As a childgrowingupwithEnglishas a first language I developedaninstinct for Creole, out of acuriositytode-code the grown-upspeakaroundme. Creole oftenfelt secretive, slipperyandconfusingAt times I never knewwhichwords wereEnglishandwhichwereCreole, thewords ‘ vomit’ and ‘vomee’ soundedveryclosetomystrugglingear. Withinmypoetryis thestrongresidueof aCreolerhythm and an oralqualitynot strictlyEnglishthatlies underneaththe Englishtext. Itpromptedthefurtherexcavationof twopoems inparticular ‘MoTi Béébéé’ (Mylittleone) and‘Coumaki piti zenfanguetter’ ( As thechildlooks on). Not onlywere these
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Soobrayen 31 poemsstrivingtosoundlikeMauritianCreolebutwithinthe lines of Englishwas a kindof tension, a stand-off between the English text and the structures of French. In keeping withits adaptable nature, the Creole spoken at home had re-aligneditself withtheacquiredcolloquial EnglishandtextbookFrenchandhadbecomebroken, vulnerableandopento change. TheCreole versions ofthepoems werewrittenwiththekind assistance of myparents. Neither of themhadwrittenmuch CreolebeforesothepoemsweregraftedfromtheEnglishand werereliant onthe layeringof oursharedoral understanding of Creoleimageryandrhythm. Thepoemsarefirmlyrootedina familysettingperhaps becauseof thelimitationof myCreole vocabulary andoften rely onfoodimagery as inthe poem ‘Couma ki piti zenfanguetter’, the makingof the ‘sauce ti malice’ (whichincidentally is only slightly less spicy than ‘saucegrandmalice’). AndagainakeyingredientinMauritian cuisineappearsinmypoem‘Moti Béébéé’: Outsideof me, outsideofhouse, Endetoirmoi, endetoirlakaz, tosourir yousmileatbirds, attrees, atclouds. ekzoiseau, ekarbres, eknuages. Yourbodystill asgingerroot. Tolecorpraidcoumaunrazinezinzame. BoththeMauritianlanguageandcuisinehavegonethrougha process of creolizationover twoandhalf centuries, absorbing the richflavours andspices fromthe manyarrivingcultures andincludingtheFrenchandtheDutchcontribution‘Piedde Cerf’: Javanesedeerfeet. Notsurprisingly, noingredientsfrom the Englishkitchenhave made anyimpact, but 150Creole wordsderivefromtheEnglishlanguage.

30

Soobrayen

totheirskinslikebeadsof sweat. Hundredsof tongues parchedlikethemouthsof sweetheartsinanarranged ceremony. Sheiskindandruthlessandinsists ontheQueen’sEnglish. AtnightCreoleverveslipsin

andmakesmischief.

With French as its base language, Mauritian Creole has alsobeeninfusedwithcontributions fromEnglish, Malagasy, Chinese and Indian languages. In 1880 Charles Baissac describedtheporousdefiantnatureof MauritianCreoleinhis studyPatoiscrééole:‘Creoleallowsanythingtobesaid,recognises everything.Butafterallits capitulationson thepublicstage, it comes backhome, shuts its door, resumes its personality, its individual originality, soqualitéé mêême, asitsays.’ It has left its pidginstatus to become the stable mother tongueofsubsequentgenerations.TodayitisknownasKreolor Moriysenandis spokenwidelyinMauritius. WhileFrenchis thelanguage of popular cultureandEnglishthelanguage of Government, Creoleremainsinthehomesandstreetsanditis at the heart of people’s lives with its riddling nature and directness. Althougha dictionaryhas beendeveloped, it has resistedattempts tolegitimiseitself fullyintopubliclifeand schools. As a childgrowingupwithEnglishas a first language I developedaninstinct for Creole, out of acuriositytode-code the grown-upspeakaroundme. Creole oftenfelt secretive, slipperyandconfusingAt times I never knewwhichwords wereEnglishandwhichwereCreole, thewords ‘ vomit’ and ‘vomee’ soundedveryclosetomystrugglingear. Withinmypoetryis thestrongresidueof aCreolerhythm and an oralqualitynot strictlyEnglishthatlies underneaththe Englishtext. Itpromptedthefurtherexcavationof twopoems inparticular ‘MoTi Béébéé’ (Mylittleone) and‘Coumaki piti zenfanguetter’ ( As thechildlooks on). Not onlywere these

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