The Fifth Official Language of the Republic of Singapore
Poem in English and Kristang
is not Kristang.
No one is learning it.
No one is interested.
There are no classrooms for it, no publications, no schools.
No songs in the language.
No ways to right wrongs.
Are you sure that you still want to say that
this is a mother tongue?
Nteh jenti podih intindeh isti frase.
Nteh jenti dibeh.
Nteh jenti kereh prendeh papiah kung bolotu
Nteh nada ta kriseh.
There are no new ways of thinking in the language,
nothing in base-16.
No MRT map, no periodic table,
no ways to set your mind and heart free
nteh nada ki podih judah kung bos fikah impoku mas alegri.
nteh nggeng ki logu skribeh di sigredu kung berdadi.
nteh mparti undi podih kontah-kontah stori.
You’d need to have a critical mass,
a seventh haven,
a hell on earth for standardisation and language planning.
No wonder they always try to hide
just how creole and gay an imagining
this poem tries to engender.
This poem tries to imbibe.
You absolutely have an agenda, Kevin Martens Wong!
You absolutely have something to hide.
And it’s true;
what I have to hide is this:
yo sabeh ki impodih skribeh di otru jenti sa sanggi siumis.
Tudu otru podih: Inggres, Landes, sertu mesu Franchis.
I am no liar. No Devil’s Kiss.
There are only four official languages in Singapore.
Nothing is amiss.
You and I know that trying to resist
is not only futile, but couched in what you insist
does not ever, and cannot ever, possibly exist.
There is only one way of ever doing up a list.