Vikram can't understand Hindi,
the inarticulate gurgling*
of a Brahmin from South Asia.
But this Brahmin from New Delhi
hears the language of his childhood
as his mother tongue.
Murmuring
like a madman with aphasia,
poor Vikram doesn't recognize
how he wound up misunderstood.
Inside a sanatorium
beside a mumbling idiot
inside an auditorium
eating lunch.
Chomping at the bit
to leave this place...
they both despise.
~ ~ ~
*1914
Wenn wir einen Chinesen hören, so sind wir geneigt, sein Sprechen für ein unartikuliertes Gurgeln zu halten. Einer, der chinesisch versteht, wird darin die Sprache erkennen. So kann ich oft nicht den Menschen im Menschen erkennen.
We tend to take the speech of a Chinese for inarticulate gurgling. Someone who understands Chinese will recognize language in what he hears. Similarly I often cannot discern the humanity in a man.
Culture and Value
Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1889-1951.
Edited by G. H. von Wright
in collaboration with
Heikki Nyman
Translated by Peter Winch
The University of Chicago Press
Basil Blackwell, Oxford, ©1980.
First published in 1977 as Vermischte Bemerkungen
©1977 by Suhrkamp Verlag,
Frankfurt am Main
All rights reserved
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