search for my tongue (poem analysis) by Sujata Bhatt

Sujata Bhatt is the author of the poem ‘Search for my Tongue’. She was born in 1956 in India. Later, she moved to the United States and earned a graduate degree in Iowa. She is known for her writing and translation work, and due to these factors, she has become a well-established name in the literary world. This poem is about what it’s like to reside in a foreign State, experiencing disconnection from her ethnic backdrop. In this poem, Sujata is afraid that she is losing her identity as a Gujarati-speaking Indian. The poem comes from the period when she was studying English in America and feared being ‘ Americanised’. As we progress through the poem, we will encounter several important themes, including language and communication, culture and tradition, alienation, and displacement. 

The beginning of the poem poses many possibilities as to what the poet wants to convey. Firstly, we can understand that Bhatt discusses fictional conversations that occur between the reader and herself or may have a fictional character in mind. The word ‘tongue’ is often used to represent language, since people use their tongues and mouths to shape or form words. Then, the speaker employs conceit with the word “tongue.” Thus, the poet can be considered a metaphysical poet, as she is comparing tongue to language to describe things that are beyond the description of physical existence. While reading the poem, we come to another possibility that the speaker is asking the Britishers [the other people in foreign countries] how they would feel having two tongues. Moving forward, the poet says, ‘And lost the first one… And could not know the other.’ This portrays that the first one is the mother tongue, which is the original language associated with nurturing, protecting, and loving, while the foreign tongue is alien. Indeed, it is often seen that a person is fluent in their mother tongue rather than some other language. Either way, adapting to a different language, for instance, English, would be difficult. Thus, by saying all this, the author depicts the difficulty of adjusting to a foreign country. It feels like one has lost their identity while adapting to another country’s language and culture. After losing the mother tongue, adapting to a foreign language hasn’t been an easy task. She expresses the fact that no matter how much you try, you can never fully handle both cultures at the same time. This particular phenomenon is often seen in real life and is also now visible in movies and series. Thus, the poet is stating a fact in the lines, ‘You could not use them both together even if you thought that way.’

Bhatt uses metaphors and imagery such as ‘Rot’, which describes the intensity of how distinguishably she is ripped away from her mother tongue. The repetition of the word ‘rot’ is telling, as if Bhatt believes the damage to her mother tongue to be so horrific that stating the verb(Rot)  once isn’t sufficient. To get the point across, a secondary ‘rot’ must be used to bring the idea into full focus. She makes it more intense by using the word ‘die’, stating that “rot and die in your mouth.” Thereafter, she says ‘spit it out’, which means that due to rotting, the mother tongue has died, and one is forced to spit it out. Here we see someone struggling with their words, even if the reason for that struggle is not a language barrier. This also shows the speaker’s frustration and boosts the level of offensiveness felt by the speaker. By using harsh consonants, the author illustrates the conflict between two languages and the difficulty of holding onto one’s identity. Here, the speaker demonstrates the reality that when a person attempts to assimilate into a new culture and language, they often forget their original ones; when they later try to reclaim them, it is already too late. 

As we move further, we see a turning point in the poem known as the volta, as the speaker turns from a losing mode to a defending mode. We come to know this by her words, “While I dream,” after which she immediately uses her mother tongue, Gujarati. Thus, we see the poem is written in two languages. She also gives a translation of her Gujarati language passage and shows how difficult the Gujarati words would be to pronounce by a person speaking English. It is quite interesting as she is really encouraging the non-Gujarati speaking and other readers to grasp her experience as closely as possible, because otherwise, she would have put the Gujarati at the top without the kind of phonetic way of pronouncing each symbol. Another interpretation would be that she is being rebellious. The sudden shift of language reveals that she may speak a foreign language and embrace foreign concepts, but deep within, she is still the same person with her heritage. No matter how much the other language tries to overpower the speaker, her mother tongue will always give a tough fight and win in the end. This kind of spirit is seen in the second half of the poem.

The last stanza, after the Gujarati language, completely contrasts with the first one. In the beginning, we had the imagery of death and fear of losing the first language, but towards the end of the poem, we see the fighting spirit. There is a repetition of the word ‘grow’, which states the direct vision of flower imagery and contrasts with the imagery of death. She uses words like veins, which shows the first language will grow deep inside her, now that she is no longer scared by any other language hindering her mother tongue. The repetition of the words ‘grow’ and ‘bud opens’ shows the intensity and power of the mother tongue as it forms again, therefore implying how quickly Bhatt remembers it. By using floral imagery, Bhatt wants the readers to imagine her first language as beautiful as the natural world. She is showing her feelings towards her language and compares it with how warm it feels when we watch a flower grow. ‘It ties the other tongue in Knots’. It seems that there is the use of a triumphant tone here, that her first language has completely overpowered her foreign language and has pushed the other tongue aside by creating the image of battle. She implies that whatever happens, her mother tongue will always win as it’s embedded in her. 

In the conclusion of the poem, we see that the first language or the culture is shown to have a lasting impression. Thus, Bhatt has structured the poem to show the contrast between her mother tongue and a Foreign Language. Repetition of ‘mother tongue’ shows her longing and desperation to want her mother tongue back. For the reader’s perspective, the structure shows that even though English has replaced the first language, it will return. This is the case with Bhatt as she realized that her mother tongue would always win no matter what happens. She uses her pen to fight back against the foreign language and make others aware of never losing their mother tongue.