Storyteller – Across a Myriad of Languages
By Maria Celestina Fernandes
Storyteller, Storyteller tell us a myth A beautiful, exotic tale in depth Lend us your voice Lull us into your rhythm As you map out worlds afar on our senses. Storyteller, Storyteller tell us a story in the many tongues we know you speak. Tell us your tales of travellers and warriors of maids and prisoners, of genies trapped in lamps and pirates after sunken treasure; those enchanting sorcerers, apothecaries and mystic dragons these magnificent men and women who inspire a range of fantastic careers. Tell us in Latin and Hebrew, in Sanskrit and Parsi We’ll carry it forward in English and Urdu In Tamil and Punjabi. In the languages lost and the new ones that form ‘For from the old comes forth the new’ you say, Then tell us how languages are born. Storyteller, Storyteller Tell us in poems and songs, in ancient styles long forgone. Tell us about dreamers who dared to dream And in all the ways they spoke their soul, through all the languages that lived within them those who built something for themselves to grow roots in. Storytellers, they exist in many people, as fathers, mothers, teachers and friends the village elders and the strange minstrels in oracles and bards. The tales they carry are proof of mental luggage those ‘ek aur Kahani’ nights buried in our subconscious, those toe-curling dramatic excursions that shaped our childhood. Stories speak the language of the veiled; the language endorsed by the rendition of oral tales. These are veins that keep cultures alive despite the slow death of some languages, their cultural charm flows like blood in their tales as the remnants of an existence that clung tightly to their storytellers. This unending desire to hear a story, to read and never be satisfied. Those worlds they create and share the worlds that see many a soul visit and many who wish to stay; that hold secrets and the repertoire never exhausts itself. After all, it’s replenished by the millions who undertake storytelling and tell their stories on a daily basis. So dear reader to you I ask, would you take on this mantle of a storyteller’s task? I promise it’ll be fun when you become the Storyteller who has a story for us. So, pick your language, pick your style and narrate to us your world until this one too, we exile.
About the author:
Maria Celestina Fernandes is a student of Literature at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi and is currently an intern at AfterWord.