Lingua | Language

there is
nothing unusual
a language is
a language
flows as a stream
of medium size
through our kitchen
across our table

but when all
sit around the table
the big break in the schoolyard
the dream of last night
and the worry of tomorrow
we fall
and suddenly there are
chasms between the words
of yours mine others'
then someone opens a window
and outside rustles
the wind


The poem "lingua" by Gianna Olinda Cadonau is part of a cycle of twelve poems about family. Like landscape, family members, or a house, language is part of what we call home. It is inevitable and shapes us. 
The cycle of poems was published in March 2023 in the book "5 idioms 5 dunnas", Edition Les Troglodytes, Grand-Saconnex. The book brings together poems by five women who write in the five Romansh variants (Vallader, Puter, Sursilvan, Surmiran, Sutsilvan). All five variants are written down and have their own grammar and literature. "lingua" is vallader, the Romansh of the Lower Engadin.