Day: November 30, 2025

oh teita, the language the english no it understand tongue of you. and no can i

i feed you these the morsels from mouth of me. language of me the arabic half-

chewed. oh teita, let me i try and i fail to fit languages of us in each other.

seen i face of you split open by riot laughter. the spit it falls without grace from

lips of you thins. complexion of you light; skin of you wrinkled but healthy;

flecks olive they try to jump from folds of the corners of the eyes of you. can i

find in the mirror eyelids of you the heavy. eyelashes of you. the echo of the

nose of you. sometimes, i split open face of me with spoon, tool blunt &

wrong. i want from you for you to bleed from in me into the sink, so that can i i

ask these the questions sprinkled you in lungs of me. i cough out them, always

in the time the wrong. i laugh. soil of the grave falls it without grace from lips

of me.

Copyright © 2017 Noor Jaber. Used with permission of the author.

🔶 • Theme 1: Language as Inheritance and Burden

“Tries the Grammar of the Arabic to Fit the Language the English” by Noor Jaber foregrounds language not merely as a communicative tool but as an inherited, almost bodily legacy that carries emotional, cultural, and intergenerational weight. The poem dramatizes the impossibility of fully transferring Arabic grammar and sensibilities into the structural constraints of English; consequently, the speaker’s fractured syntax becomes both a performative enactment of linguistic burden and a symbol of an identity caught between two grammars that refuse full reconciliation. Through images of “half-chewed Arabic,” “morsels,” and “lungs sprinkled with questions,” language becomes a substance consumed, breathed, and expelled, making it inseparable from bodily existence. Yet this inheritance is equally a burden—one that the speaker feels compelled to preserve, even as the task of translating it demands emotional labour, vulnerability, and an acknowledgment of persistent inadequacy embedded within diasporic linguistic experience.

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🟣 • Theme 2: Intergenerational Memory and the Body

“Tries the Grammar of the Arabic to Fit the Language the English” by Noor Jaber explores how memory is preserved and transmitted through the body, especially in the context of familial lineage. The speaker attempts to locate her grandmother not through stories alone but through features—eyelids, nose, olive flecks—embedded in her own reflection, as though memory has been literally inscribed on flesh. The poem’s bodily metaphors—spit, lungs, blood, face splitting—suggest that ancestry circulates internally like oxygen, making the past not abstract but physically inhabiting the present. Intergenerational memory becomes tactile and visceral, experienced through wrinkles, skin, and breath; thus, the body becomes an archive that resists erasure. The grandmother’s presence survives in textures, gestures, and the speaker’s corporeal attempts to excavate meaning, even when linguistic articulation fails. In this way, memory persists not through perfected grammar but through inherited bodily resonances that refuse to fade.

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🟢 • Theme 3: Diasporic Fragmentation and the Struggle to Belong

“Tries the Grammar of the Arabic to Fit the Language the English” by Noor Jaber powerfully dramatizes the fragmentation inherent in diasporic subjectivity, where belonging becomes unstable, partial, and fractured across two linguistic worlds. The poem’s broken syntax, shifting pronoun positions, and disrupted grammatical patterns embody the speaker’s divided sense of self, as though her identity must be assembled from incompatible linguistic parts. The repeated failures to “fit” Arabic into English expose a broader existential dilemma: the impossibility of complete assimilation without the loss of ancestral identity, and the parallel inability to return fully to origins once displacement has occurred. This fragmentation is not portrayed as mere deficiency but as a lived reality that shapes emotional expression, familial intimacy, and self-perception. Thus, diasporic belonging becomes a liminal space structured by discontinuity, where the speaker negotiates multiple cultural grammars that both sustain and destabilize her sense of home.

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🔵 • Theme 4: Violence of Translation and the Desire for Fusion

“Tries the Grammar of the Arabic to Fit the Language the English” by Noor Jaber employs the imagery of self-harm, bleeding, splitting, and blunt tools to articulate the violence inherent in the act of translation—an effort not simply to convert words but to merge identities, histories, and emotional registers across languages. The speaker’s attempt to “split open” her own face with a “blunt” spoon suggests that translation requires dissecting oneself with inadequate instruments, revealing a painful mismatch between what the body contains and what language permits. The desire for fusion—wanting the grandmother to “bleed into” her—reflects a yearning for an unbroken continuity of heritage that the linguistic gap brutally interrupts. In this sense, translation becomes a site of emotional strain and symbolic violence, where the impossibility of perfect transfer generates wounds rather than seamless cohesion, illuminating the painful limits of language in shaping diasporic identity.

🔵 Critical Question 1: How does “Tries the Grammar of the Arabic to Fit the Language the English” by Noor Jaber use distorted English syntax to express cultural and linguistic fragmentation?

The deliberate syntactic distortion in “Tries the Grammar of the Arabic to Fit the Language the English” by Noor Jaber becomes a structural embodiment of cultural dislocation, reflecting how hybrid identities often fail to inhabit a single linguistic frame. By producing phrases such as “the language the english no it understand tongue of you,” Jaber transforms English into a textured, resistant space where Arabic grammar intrudes, disrupts, and reshapes meaning. This hybridity mirrors the speaker’s internal fragmentation—the impossibility of fully expressing love, memory, and intergenerational belonging in a language that cannot carry ancestral emotional weight. The poem’s half-translated expressions, like “i try and i fail to fit languages of us in each other,” expose a psychological and cultural tension: English becomes both a tool and a barrier. The syntactic friction thus articulates the speaker’s liminality, reflecting how diasporic subjects live between grammars, histories, and emotional vocabularies.

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🟣 Critical Question 2: In what ways does Noor Jaber use the figure of the grandmother to explore intergenerational inheritance and embodied memory in “Tries the Grammar of the Arabic to Fit the Language the English”?

In “Tries the Grammar of the Arabic to Fit the Language the English” by Noor Jaber, the grandmother—teita—functions as both a living archive and a conduit of cultural transmission, her body holding the memories, syntax, and emotional codes that the speaker desperately wishes to preserve. The poem foregrounds her physicality (“eyelids of you,” “olive flecks,” “lips of you”) to emphasize how lineage is not abstract but corporeal, embedded in textures, wrinkles, and gestures. Yet the speaker’s attempt to internalize her grandmother—“i split open face of me with spoon… i want… you to bleed from in me”—reveals an almost desperate longing to inherit what threatens to disappear with generational distance. The grandmother symbolizes a fading linguistic and cultural root, and the speaker’s struggle to “fit languages of us in each other” reflects a profound fear of losing ancestral intimacy. Through her, the poem meditates on memory as both embodied and vulnerable.

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🟢 Critical Question 3: How does the poem navigate themes of death, ancestry, and continuity, particularly in its final image of “soil of the grave”? (from “Tries the Grammar of the Arabic to Fit the Language the English” by Noor Jaber)

In “Tries the Grammar of the Arabic to Fit the Language the English” by Noor Jaber, the recurring imagery of the body culminates in the haunting final line: “soil of the grave falls it without grace from lips of me,” a moment that merges ancestry, loss, and linguistic inheritance. The grave soil becomes a metaphor for the weight of lineage the speaker carries, suggesting that the grandmother’s memory—her language, her laughter, her embodied history—has already begun to sediment within the speaker’s consciousness. This image also dramatizes the unavoidable erosion of cultural continuity: as the grandmother ages, the speaker inherits fragments rather than wholeness, symbolized by “the arabic half-chewed” and the cough of misplaced questions. Death thus becomes intertwined with transmission; what is inherited arrives broken, mistranslated, and unstable. The soil signifies both burial and planting, marking the simultaneous loss and preservation at the heart of diasporic identity formation.

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🟠 Critical Question 4: How does the poem use bodily imagery to explore the psychological burden of translation and self-formation in “Tries the Grammar of the Arabic to Fit the Language the English” by Noor Jaber?

In “Tries the Grammar of the Arabic to Fit the Language the English” by Noor Jaber, bodily imagery serves as an extended metaphor for the psychological strain of navigating between languages and identities. The speaker’s desire to “split open face of me with spoon” expresses a violent introspection—an attempt to excavate a self that feels fragmented, mistranslated, and incomplete. The grandmother’s body likewise becomes a symbolic landscape: her “riot laughter,” “wrinkled but healthy” skin, and “olive flecks” evoke heritage, resilience, and the emotional weight of belonging. Yet the speaker’s inability to fully absorb her—mirrored in lines like “i feed you these the morsels… language of me the arabic half-chewed”—suggests that translation is not merely linguistic but bodily, enacted through breath, lungs, lips, and inheritance. The poem thus renders the body a site of cultural negotiation, revealing how diasporic subjects bear the weight of identity through flesh, memory, and unspoken emotional labor.

🟣 • “Arabic” by Naomi Shihab Nye

Similarity: Like Jaber’s poem, it explores the emotional weight of Arabic as an inherited language, showing how linguistic memory shapes identity across generations.

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🟢 • “Refusing Eurydice” by Ladan Osman

Similarity: Osman, like Jaber, uses fragmented syntax and intimate familial imagery to show how immigrant identities fracture across English and ancestral languages.

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🟠 • “Self-Portrait with No Flag” by Safia Elhillo

Similarity: Elhillo’s poem, like Jaber’s, investigates diasporic identity through hybrid language forms, bodily metaphors, and the tension between inherited culture and adopted English.

Representative Quotations of “Tries the Grammar of the Arabic to Fit the Language the English” by Noor Jaber

Quotation	Context	Theoretical Perspective
🌕 “the language the english no it understand tongue of you”	The speaker mourns the inability of English to carry the emotional and cultural weight of the grandmother’s Arabic.	Postcolonial Theory: Highlights resistance to linguistic hierarchy created by colonial/Western norms; English becomes inadequate for ancestral intimacy.
🔵 “i try and i fail to fit languages of us in each other”	This moment captures the speaker’s emotional frustration at the impossibility of merging linguistic worlds.	Diaspora Studies: Reflects hybrid identity, cultural displacement, and the fractured continuity between generations.
🟣 “i feed you these the morsels… language of me the arabic half-chewed”	The speaker attempts to communicate love through imperfect, broken Arabic shaped by diaspora.	Linguistic Anthropology: Shows language as embodied heritage, transmitted incompletely in diasporic environments.
🟢 “oh teita”	A direct and intimate address to the grandmother, blending tenderness and cultural memory.	Feminist/Matrilineal Theory: Centers women as carriers of cultural knowledge, memory, and emotional lineage.
🔴 “seen i face of you split open by riot laughter”	The grandmother’s laughter becomes a symbol of vitality and cultural rootedness.	Affect Theory: Emotions shape cultural memory and intergenerational identity formation.
🟡 “flecks olive they try to jump from folds of the corners of the eyes of you”	Olive imagery invokes heritage, homeland, and Mediterranean lineage.	Cultural Symbolism Theory: Olive becomes a symbol of origin, memory, and rootedness in diaspora.
🟤 “i split open face of me with spoon, tool blunt & wrong”	The speaker engages in violent introspection to access inherited memory.	Psychoanalytic Theory: Reveals desire to excavate identity and merge self with ancestral lineage.
🟠 “i want from you for you to bleed from in me”	The speaker yearns for the grandmother’s identity to flow into their own self.	Identity Formation Theory: Explores longing for internalized ancestry and psychological merging.
🟣 “i cough out them, always in the time the wrong”	The speaker struggles to articulate questions of heritage at the right moment.	Memory Studies: Shows the fragility and mistiming of diasporic recollection processes.
⚫ “soil of the grave falls it without grace from lips of me”	The ending fuses death, inheritance, and the sedimentation of ancestral memory.	Thanatology & Legacy Theory: Death becomes a medium through which identity and cultural memory are transmitted.

Books

1. Dickins, James, Sándor Hervey, and Ian Higgins. English Poetry and Modern Arabic Verse: Translation and Modernity. Bloomsbury, 2021.
2. Marchi, Lisa. The Funambulists: Women Poets of the Arab Diaspora. Syracuse University Press, 2022. Cambridge University Press review, 2025.

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Academic Articles

1. Fakhreddine, Huda J. “Arabic Poetry in the Twenty-First Century: Translation and Multilingualism.” Journal of Arabic Literature, vol. 52, no. 2, 2021, pp. 147-169. https://doi.org/10.1163/1570064X-12341423
2. “Functions of Code-Switching in Diasporic Arab Texts.” Theory and Practice in Language Studies (TPLS), vol. 13, no. 1, 2023, pp. ___ [insert pages]. https://tpls.academypublication.com/index.php/tpls/article/download/6767/5485/19745

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Poem Websites

1. Jaber, Noor (‘Ditee). “Tries the Grammar of the Arabic to Fit the Language the English.” Poets.org, The Academy of American Poets, 2017. https://poets.org/poem/tries-grammar-arabic-fit-language-english
2. Jaber, Noor (‘Ditee). “questions arabic asked in english (colonial fit).” Poetry Foundation. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/161048/questions-arabic-asked-in-english-colonial-fit

Wise emblem of our politic world,

Sage snail, within thine own self curl’d;

Instruct me softly to make haste,

Whilst these my feet go slowly fast.

Compendious snail! thou seem’st to me,

Large Euclid’s strict epitome;

And in each diagram dost fling

Thee from the point unto the ring;

A figure now triangular,

An oval now, and now a square;

And then a serpentine dost crawl,

Now a straight line, now crook’d, now all.

Preventing rival of the day,

Th’art up and openest thy ray,

And ere the morn cradles the moon

Th’art broke into a beauteous noon.

Then when the sun sups in the deep,

Thy silver horns ere Cynthia’s peep;

And thou from thine own liquid bed

New Phoebus heav’st thy pleasant head.

Who shall a name for thee create,

Deep riddle of mysterious state?

Bold Nature that gives common birth

To all products of seas and earth,

Of thee, as earthquakes, is afraid,

Nor will thy dire deliv’ry aid.

Thou thine own daughter then, and sire,

That son and mother art entire,

That big still with thy self dost go,

And liv’st an aged embryo;

That like the cubs of India,

Thou from thyself a while dost play;

But frighted with a dog or gun,

In thine own belly thou dost run,

And as thy house was thine own womb,

So thine own womb concludes thy tomb.

But now I must (analyz’d king)

Thy economic virtues sing;

Thou great stay’d husband still within,

Thou, thee, that’s thine dost discipline;

And when thou art to progress bent,

Thou mov’st thy self and tenement,

As warlike Scythians travell’d, you

Remove your men and city too;

Then after a sad dearth and rain,

Thou scatterest thy silver train;

And when the trees grow nak’d and old,

Thou clothest them with cloth of gold,

Which from thy bowels thou dost spin,

And draw from the rich mines within.

Now hast thou chang’d thee saint; and made

Thy self a fane that’s cupola’d;

And in thy wreathed cloister thou

Walkest thine own grey friar too;

Strict, and lock’d up, th’art hood all o’er,

And ne’er eliminat’st thy door.

On salads thou dost feed severe,

And ’stead of beads thou dropp’st a tear;

And when to rest, each calls the bell,

Thou sleep’st within thy marble cell,

Where in dark contemplation plac’d,

The sweets of nature thou dost taste;

Who now with time thy days resolve,

And in a jelly thee dissolve,

Like a shot star, which doth repair

Upward, and rarify the air.

🔵 Theme 1: Self-Sufficiency and Autonomy

“The Snail” by Richard Lovelace presents self-sufficiency as a central theme, using the snail’s ability to carry its home as a metaphor for complete autonomy and disciplined independence. Throughout the poem, Lovelace underscores how the snail “mov’st thy self and tenement,” embodying a creature that neither depends on external structures nor seeks protection beyond its own shell, which serves simultaneously as shelter, boundary, and identity. This self-contained existence becomes an emblem of wise living, especially in turbulent political times, for the snail “within thine own self curl’d” represents a model of cautious self-governance and inward resilience. The poet elevates this autonomy further through paradoxical observations—such as the snail being “thine own daughter… and sire”—which metaphorically capture the notion of self-generation, suggesting that moral and intellectual integrity must arise from within. Thus, self-sufficiency becomes both a physical condition and an ethical ideal in the poem.

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🟢 Theme 2: Transformation and Adaptability

“The Snail” by Richard Lovelace foregrounds transformation and adaptability as fundamental traits of the snail, whose shifting shapes and fluid movements symbolize resilience in a constantly changing world. By calling it “Large Euclid’s strict epitome,” Lovelace suggests that the snail embodies geometric precision, yet simultaneously defies fixity through its ability to become triangular, oval, square, or serpentine depending on context, terrain, or circumstance. This constant metamorphosis reflects a deeper philosophical idea: survival rests in the capacity to adjust one’s form, pace, and strategies without losing one’s essential core. The snail’s adaptability also extends to its relationship with time, as it becomes a “preventing rival of the day,” rising before the sun, and anticipating environmental rhythms with almost prophetic awareness. In presenting a creature that adapts physically, temporally, and spiritually, Lovelace articulates transformation not as instability but as an art of living wisely within shifting realities.

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🟣 Theme 3: Spiritual Withdrawal and Contemplation

“The Snail” by Richard Lovelace develops a rich theme of spiritual withdrawal and contemplative retreat, portraying the snail as a monk-like figure who retreats into a cloistered, sacred interior. In the later stanzas, the snail “chang’d thee saint” and constructs within itself a “fane that’s cupola’d,” transforming its shell into an architectural metaphor for a miniature monastery. This religious imagery casts the act of withdrawal not as fear or avoidance but as a dignified movement toward inner purity and contemplative refinement. The snail eats “salads… severe,” prays through “dropp’st a tear,” and sleeps in a “marble cell,” performing a symbolic asceticism that aligns it with monastic discipline. Lovelace thus frames introspection, quietude, and detachment from external chaos as paths to spiritual elevation, culminating in the snail’s dissolution “like a shot star,” suggesting a mystical release from material form and an ascent into purified transcendence.

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🟠 Theme 4: Mortality and the Cycles of Nature

“The Snail” by Richard Lovelace meditates profoundly on mortality and the cyclical patterns within nature, using the snail’s life cycle as a poetic allegory for human existence and inevitable decay. The shell, described alternately as a womb and tomb, becomes a powerful symbol of life’s beginning and end being enclosed within the same fragile structure, embodying the paradox that the spaces that nurture us also ultimately contain our dissolution. Lovelace’s detailed imagery—such as the snail dissolving “in a jelly” and rising “like a shot star”—fuses biological realism with cosmic metaphor, presenting death not merely as an end but as a reabsorption into natural and spiritual cycles. Even the snail’s “silver train” and “cloth of gold,” products of bodily secretions, remind the reader that nature’s beauty is intertwined with processes of consumption, waste, and renewal. The poem thus situates mortality within a broader ecosystem of continual transformation.

🔵 Critical Question 1: How does Lovelace use the snail as a political metaphor, and what does this reveal about governance and self-rule?

“The Snail” by Richard Lovelace employs the snail as a striking political metaphor that reflects the poet’s nuanced understanding of governance, prudence, and internal discipline during a period of civil upheaval. The snail becomes a “wise emblem of our politic world” precisely because it embodies a form of self-governance: it carries its boundaries, laws, and protection within its own shell, rendering itself both sovereign and self-limiting. This self-contained autonomy suggests a political philosophy grounded in moderation, caution, and self-regulation rather than external coercion. The snail’s capacity to “make haste” while moving “slowly fast” demonstrates the paradoxical need for controlled progress, particularly in troubled political times. By retreating strategically into its “own belly,” it models defensive self-preservation rather than reckless confrontation. Thus, Lovelace’s metaphor critiques political instability by proposing the snail’s interiorized discipline as an alternative model for sustainable governance rooted in restraint and self-awareness.

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🟢 Critical Question 2: How does the poem’s scientific and geometric imagery contribute to its metaphysical complexity?

“The Snail” by Richard Lovelace integrates geometric and observational scientific imagery to heighten its metaphysical intricacy, positioning the snail as “Large Euclid’s strict epitome” and allowing mathematical language to function as a conceptual bridge between natural observation and philosophical abstraction. The shifting shapes—triangular, oval, square, serpentine—illustrate not merely physical motion but the intellectual idea that reality is structured through patterns, diagrams, and principles of order. Lovelace transforms the snail into a living diagram, suggesting that nature, though outwardly simple, encodes profound structures that parallel human attempts to map knowledge. This interplay between science and poetry enriches the metaphysical quality of the work, as the snail’s transformations dramatize the interconnectedness of physical form and spiritual meaning. The poem therefore uses geometry not as ornament but as an epistemological tool, compelling the reader to question how natural forms embody philosophical truth while simultaneously defying neat categorization.

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🟣 Critical Question 3: What is the significance of religious and monastic imagery in shaping the poem’s spiritual vision?

“The Snail” by Richard Lovelace employs monastic and religious imagery to construct a spiritual vision grounded in retreat, self-examination, and ascetic discipline, casting the snail as a contemplative figure who “chang’d thee saint” and transforms its shell into a “wreathed cloister.” By likening the snail’s inward withdrawal to the disciplined rituals of monks, Lovelace elevates a humble creature into a model of spiritual practice, demonstrating how sanctity can emerge through silence, enclosure, and detachment from worldly noise. The snail’s tears replace rosary beads, its shell becomes a marble cell, and its slow, deliberate motions parallel the meditative rhythm of monastic life. These images collectively suggest that spiritual purity arises not through grand gestures but through interiority and stillness. Ultimately, the poem contends that transcendence is achieved through contemplative withdrawal, as the snail’s dissolution “like a shot star” signals a mystical ascension beyond physical limitation.

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🟠 Critical Question 4: How does the poem explore the tension between vulnerability and resilience through the imagery of the shell?

“The Snail” by Richard Lovelace explores a profound tension between vulnerability and resilience by emphasizing the dual nature of the shell as both protective sanctuary and potential tomb. The snail’s ability to retreat within its shell demonstrates a strategy of survival rooted in self-protection, yet the same structure also confines it, underscoring its fragility and dependence on the delicate architecture of its body. Lovelace intensifies this paradox by describing the shell as both womb and tomb, suggesting that the very structures that nurture life also determine the conditions of mortality and dissolution. Despite its vulnerability, the snail exhibits remarkable resilience: it carries its home, survives natural threats, and even enriches nature through its “silver train.” This interplay suggests that strength arises not from external dominance but from the capacity to turn inward, adapt, and persist. Thus, the poem portrays resilience as a quiet, internalized force that coexists with—and grows from—recognized vulnerability.

🔵 1. “The Flea” by John Donne

Like “The Snail” by Richard Lovelace, Donne’s poem uses an ordinary creature as an elaborate metaphysical conceit to explore complex philosophical ideas through wit and paradox.

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🟢 2. “The Grasshopper” by Richard Lovelace

This poem resembles “The Snail” in its use of a small creature as a moral and philosophical emblem, transforming natural observation into reflections on pleasure, resilience, and human conduct.

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🟣 3. “The Fly” by William Blake

Blake’s poem parallels “The Snail” by turning a simple insect into a symbolic meditation on human vulnerability, mortality, and the fragile boundary between life and death.

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Representative Quotations of “The Snail” by Richard Lovelace

📚 Books / Monographs

• Patterson, Annabel. Richard Lovelace: Royalist Poetry in Context, 1639–1649.
• Wilkinson, C. H., ed. The Poems of Richard Lovelace. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1930.

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📝 Academic Articles / Critical Studies

• Wadsworth, R. L. “On ‘The Snayl’ by Richard Lovelace.” Studies in English Literature, 1500–1900, vol. 10, no. 2, 1970, pp. 215–223. (A focused critical essay on “The Snail,” exploring its allegorical dimensions.)
• [Author unknown]. “Richard Lovelace’s Selected Animal Fables and the Emblem Tradition.” International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Studies, vol. 10, no. 2, 2023. (Analyses “The Snail” along with other Lovelace animal-poems in light of the emblem-book tradition.

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🌐 Online Poem-Text and Reference Sources

• Lovelace, Richard. The Snail. Poetry Foundation. Available at: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44655/the-snail.
• Lovelace, Richard. The Poems of Richard Lovelace. Edited by C. H. Wilkinson. Archive.org. Available at: https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.186749/2015.186749.The-Poems-Of-Richard-Lovelace_djvu.txt.