NaPoWriMo Day 26: Etymology

Prompt: write a poem that includes images that engage all five senses.

I combined today's prompt with the SEAPoWriMo prompt, which was about reclamation - of words and phrases that are commonly used with a negative connotation. Not precisely on topic for that, but then I don't think it's precisely on topic here either.

It also turned out to be one of the most challenging pieces I've written, and required a complete overhaul both for lineation and for clarity. It's long (I hate writing long poems!) and it deals with many aspects of the languages spoken here in Malaysia, as well as the connotations that words can have.

Popo = Cantonese for maternal grandmother
Taugeh = Hokkien for mung bean sprouts
Taukwa = A type of firm Chinese beancurd
Mee goreng = Fried noodles
Kopitiam = A small Malaysian eatery, usually with various hawker food stalls in it.


ETYMOLOGY

1.

I am the same word

       in different languages

       given different meaning

       by tonality and intent.

The boy on the street leers at me.

Ah moi[*], wei ah moi. 
2-tone whistle from pursed lips.

A bird call. Mockingbird call.     

妹. 妹子. Moi zhai [1].

Ngi keh moi leh? my Hakka popo asks my mother.

妹. Mui[2], xiu sam ah, my sister says.

糜. Jiak moi[3], my Hokkien friend invites.

I am daughter

I am sister

I am a bowl of soft congee

           slurped and swallowed.

2.

Her father fries mee goreng at a kopitiam.

Kelinga mee, they called it in the past

       a hybrid of fried yellow noodles

       with spicy sweet potato gravy.

Ingredients:

       Yellow noodles, a handful

           of slippery ancestral strands

           from his father and

           South Indian grandfather

       Taugeh grown from

            the labour and sweat

            of building a nation

            that paves its  roads

            with the burnt stones

            of his ancestors’ dreams

       Chilli paste pungent

            with the bite and scorch

            of derogatory names

            and relentless sun

         Taukwa. Cuttlefish gravy.

         Sweet potato gravy.

         Fat teardrops. Potatoes.

         His wife’s hands slicing

              stars and ingredients

              into her wide metal tray

              hoping to birth a comet

         His love for his daughter

               a perfect boiled egg

               on her plate each morning

               while the rest he cuts up

               for garnish

Kelinga[4]. Kalinga[5].

A difference of one letter

       spanning the divide

       between a glorious kingdom

       and a derogatory taunt.

3.

The walk from her father’s stall to the bus stop

       is 200 metres of narrow lane stretched out

       to 200 kilometres.

Ah moi, ah moi

The boys catcall and jeer at us

       mouths puckered  

       like wrinkled little anuses.

Beady gleaming eyes.
Rats’ eyes.

I want to spit HAM GAA CAAN 咸家鏟[6]
       in ideograms of fire

       and pluck them from the air to hurl:

       a missile, a curse.

We are dead tigers, she and I, vanity kills

       stripped of our claws and teeth

       with knives forged from 
       words.

GLOSSARY:

[*] Ah moi (n): Malaysian slang for ‘girl’.

      Context is all-important.

      The margin between ‘girl’ and ‘sex object’
              is a fine line not delineated 

              by the length of a skirt

              the dip of a neckline

              no matter what they say: 

              it’s all in the mind

    

[1] 妹子, moi4 zhai3 (n) Hakka: Daughter

      Ngi keh moi leh? : Where is your daughter?

      Where is the producer of heirs?
      Where is the iron warrior

       birthed from steel loins?

      

      The distinction is tonality

      and intent

[2] 妹, mui2 (n) Cantonese: Younger sister

      Xiu sam ah: Be careful
      (but care is not always enough

       little sister
       be wise)

[3] 糜, moi2 (n) Hokkien: Congee

      Jiak moi: Eat congee

      The sharing of a meal
       is community
       is love

[4] Kelinga: Said to derived

from ‘Kalinga’ (see [5]).

Formerly used to mean Indian

Tamil, or South Indian
Now a derogatory term

for Indians in Malaysia

[5] Kalinga:

Ancient Indian kingdom

in east-central India
corresponding to pre­sent-day

northern Telangana
northeastern Andhra Pradesh
most of Odisha and

parts of Madhya Pradesh

When did a noble kingdom
become a curse?

[6] 咸家鏟, ham6 gaa1 caan2 (n) Cantonese:
May your whole family be dead
May your line wither, be barren

       as parched water holes

       and dead eye sockets