![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/black_scarf-205x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The language of Denshin can only be learned
\nin the hours after dusk.
\nAn aspirant must indicate her wish to learn
\nby leaving a black scarf on the line
\nfor three days running, finally taking it down
\nwhen a stranger passes by and comments
\non the flowers across the street
\nwhere there are no flowers.
\nOr, if that won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be possible, he may choose
\nto prepare his food three days in a row
\nwith the root of the sapling elm,
\na local delicacy. Then when he neglects to purchase
\nthe root the following day, he must make no comment
\non the fact but refer instead to a forgotten poet.<\/p>\n
Either way, a week later a waif will appear
\nat the aspirant\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s window, and for two months
\nteach nothing but the vowels from sunset to midnight.
\nOnly when each vowel is perfect,
\ndoes the second teacher arrive, not to teach
\nthe consonants or tones, nor even the grammar.
\nInstead the elderly teacher will discuss the potentials,
\nthe branches Denshin did not take, the ways its vocabulary
\nmight have turned out, the lost dialects and linguistic distinctions
\namong smaller subsets of the people, most ignored
\nor actively suppressed. The standard language becomes
\ndefined by the variants it is not.<\/p>\n
In the midst of this instruction, the third teacher will arrive,
\na shadowed figured who simply speaks the language.
\nWhen the elder talks of dialects, the shadowed one
\ntranslates every word into Denshin.
\nWhen the elder falls silent, the shadowed one speaks on,
\nletting the uncanny rhythm of the shadowed language
\nenter the mind of the aspirant, letting the words take root.
\nNever once is she quizzed on the declensions and agglutinations;
\nnever is he tested on which tense and why, but slowly
\nin the shadowed one\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s word, all those rules and rhythms
\nare clear, with no need to explicate.<\/p>\n
When the aspirants finally speak their first words of Denshin,
\nthey find themselves in a market, offering black scarves and
\nelm saplings, and praise of flowers and poets that no one sees.
\nBy night, they take on the look of waifs. For a time, for a time.<\/p>\n
The language of Denshin can only be learned in the hours after dusk. An aspirant must indicate her wish to learn by leaving a black scarf on the line for three days running, finally taking it down when a stranger passes by and comments on the flowers across the street where there are no flowers. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1553"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1558,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1553\/revisions\/1558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}