The language not taken

Today, I was inspired by a discussion on how to learn any language dot com where a new member is trying to choose between two difficult languages. I remembered a poem which you can read here and decided to write my own version of the poem. Instead of choosing between two roads, my poem is about choosing between two languages.

The Language Not Taken

Two languages emerged as choices,

And sorry I could not learn both

And be one speaker with two voices.

I listened to one as long as I could

Until my curiosity outlived its growth;

Then listened to the other, just as interesting,

And having perhaps the better sound,

Because it was tonal and lacked complexity;

Though, the writing system was profound

The difficulty was really about the same,

And both languages with equal fame

With few non-native speakers able to master.

Oh, I saved the first for another semester!

But knowing how difficult languages are

I doubted that I could have learned any faster.

I shall be interpreting this with a sigh

Sometime long, long from now:

Two languages emerged as options, and I —

I learned the one more difficult to try,

And that has made all the difference.

Vox13.mp3