Montreal-based poet Erin Mouré asks you to translate a language you don't know. Try it!
“Receiving Language as Rhythm and Sound”
At www.lyrikline.org, you can listen to over a 1000 poets reading their works in over 70 languages! Go there and click on a poet, on a poem, and click to listen to the sounds and rhythms of the words. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know the language! As you listen, shut your eyes and let the language in all its strangeness wash through you. As you listen, scribble down the words in your own language/s that surface in your mind. Open your eyes and look at your words. It doesn’t matter how few there are! Quickly make a first draft of a poem that includes all of your words, and any others that occur to you as you are writing. Take your poem outside and read it out loud to a bird or tree!