My stories begin as letters

My pen is my wonderland
Word water in my hand
In my pen is wonder ink
My stories sing. My stories sink.

My stories loop; my stories stop.
My pen is my wonder mop.
Drink letters; drink my ink.
My pen is blind, my stories blink.

Question/Vragie?

In which language is this poem – in watter taal is hierdie gedig?

It may appear obvious if you only speak English. Maar die vraag is eintlik vir ons tweetalige Suid-Afrikaners. Het jy dit in Engels of Afrikaans gelees? Wel lees dit nou in die ander taal.

The poem can be read in Afrikaans and English and it almost has the same meaning but the following 3 words have a different meaning in Afrikaans:

• Word – become
• Loop – walk, move
• Blink – shiny

And just for the record it isn’t my poem, I searched on the internet and while I found it, I couldn’t  find a reference to the writer. My daughter send it to me via Whatsapp en toe prikkel dit my belangstelling (and it stimulated my interest).

Regarding pronunciation, only pen is pronounced exactly the same. Mop and stop may be recognized in the opposite language (what am I saying – the similar language; the poem proves it…) but the pronunciation isn’t the same and as for the rest of the words – it is very different. But hey that is also true of British and American english!

Should you ever visit South Africa, we will appreciate it if you tell us to buy a donkey. Buy a donkey sounds like baie dankie with an accent. And baie dankie means thank you very much.

• Baie dankie that you read this.
• Buy a donkey dat julle hierdie gelees het.

During your visit to South Africa some of you may end up here – an iconic tourist spot, the Cape Town Waterfront with Table Mountain in the background. Here my daughters Irisna and Elrike (to the far left and right) is pictured with Kaya and Thomas two actors from the movie Maze runner, while they were in South Africa to film the last chapter #Deathcure. To find out how the picture happened go to my post Surprised and amazed

For other entries in the lens- artist Just for fun challenge go to Patti Moed’s post