Notes on 'Yorùbá through English Word: A poet's journey through the tunnel of two tongues' by Niyi Osundare in 'Kiss and Quarrel (p.15-31)

"When two languages meet, they kiss and quarrel" (15) - they have both differences and common ground.

"Phonology...is a notorious bone of contention" (15) - although adapting to new phonemes is possible, it is very difficult

in oral poetry it is the sound of thins that provokes empathy, emotion
- a "co-operative principle between verbal significance and ontological identity" (16)

Osundare discusses the problems of taking Yorùbá into English, nothing Yorùbá's "prosodic peculiarities"

questions how Yorùbá a writer can be when he has been exposed to a whole range of other ideas; paradigms even

asserts that "there as Yorùbá ways of thinking which have produced a certain science of being, a certain blend of wisdom and philosophy, certain moral ideals and a certain epistemology - certain Yorùbá ways of segmenting experience and cognising the world" (18)
- so, what happens to these thoughts when they are put into English? what are the gains and what are the losses, what are the strategies for coping?

Some words/ideas completely lack a translation, uses the example 'babalawo', a sort of doctor/priest/diviner figure; no adequate English word for him

On Yorùbá - "Sounding is meaning, meaning is sounding. The music which emanates from the soul of the words is an inalienable part of the beauty of the language" (20)

"Yorùbá remains the missing link between music and speech" (13)

Even though "English is a highly flexible and accommodating language" a writer must still look for strategies to express Yorùbá thought in English

In his poetry, Osundare tries to bridge this language gap by using poetry that is to be heard, rather than to be read, concluding "there is no wholly satisfactory alternative to creating and performing Yorùbá poetry in its indigenous medium" 31