June 2021
Bio Note: As a poet who slid sideways from the study of Historical Linguistics to the writing of poems, I’ve been forever fascinated by what is now referred to as “Proto-Indo-European” (“PIE”)-- the ancient ancestor of about 445 of the modern languages in use today. I often wish I could hear it spoken, but that’s clearly not to be.
Speak to Me in the Oldest Tongue
Proto-Indo-European, the common ancestor
of the Indo-European languages, is estimated
to have been spoken from 4500 to 2500 BCE.
Speak to me in the oldest tongue
and let me hear
the rugged consonants
rattling their percussion down
the centuries; its vowels
like reeds, set shimmering by
an eloquent intake of breath
six thousand years ago and still
pulsing, having cleaved
into hundred-part harmony;
sing for me
the trills of southern Spain,
the arpeggios of Tuscany,
the thick, moist velars
of the Schwarzwald; strike
the alto bells of India and
the cymbals of Kildare—each
a variation on an ancient air,
the plainsong of angels.
©2021 Marilyn Taylor
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