Hathi Room

I got a little too eager with this first one and decided to start writing before April rolled around.

Notes:  A quick seven liner with a quasi-anaphoric pattern, but not really following any distinctive structure other than that. The intent of this poem was more of a personal one. Gujarati is my mother language, but I am barely conversationally fluent in it let alone literate. I spent some time on the Gujarati alphabet Wikipedia page and did my best to construct each one of these words phonetically while learning a bit more about the ins and outs of the language throughout the process.

Marchu translates to chili pepper in English. I focused this poem on it because it’s one of my favorite Gujarati words and a common one in our household – especially in the kitchen as there are a huge variety of spices used in Indian meals.

 

મરચુ (marchu)

મરચુ  લાલ  લીલુ  મરચુ     (marchu lāl līlu marchu)

મરચુ  મોટુ  નાનુ  મરચુ     (marchu mōṭu nānu marchu)

મરચુ  લાંબુ  ટૂંકુ  મરચુ     (marchu lāmbu Ṭūṅku marchu)

મરચુ  ડાહયુ  ગંાડુ  મરચુ     (marchu dahayu gānaḷu marchu)

મરચુ  ધીમુ  ઝળપી  મરચુ     (marchu dhīmu jhaḍapī marchu)

મરચુ  પાતળુ  જાળુ  મરચુ     (marchu pātaḷu jāḷu marchu)

મરચુ  માેંઘુ  સસ્તુ  મરચુ     (marchu monghu sasthu marchu)

મરચુ  મોરુ  તિખુ  મરચુ     (marchu moru tikhu marchu)

 

English translation:

Chili pepper red green chili pepper

Chili pepper big small chili pepper

Chili pepper long short chili pepper

Chili pepper well behaved badly behaved chili pepper

Chili pepper slow fast chili pepper

Chili pepper thin fat chili pepper

Chili pepper expensive cheap chili pepper

Chili pepper mild spicy chili pepper