Homeland of the Foreign Tongue

By Scott Cairns b. 1954 Scott Cairns

Each morning we begin again. My wife

wakes me with a shove, and condescends to try

her sorry Deutsch with me; she’s chewing mud.

God, she’s dumb. I tell her so, but mostly

in a dialect she never understands.

Carefully now, she mouths her thanks and takes me

by the hand to the dampness of the trough,

where she leaves me throwing water on my face.

I wash those parts I want to wash, begin

my bump along the wall to the sour kitchen,

where coffee waits and something tasteless chills

against the plate. Grace is blind, and probably

deaf as well, happens only where angels

let it—nowhere you’ll ever find in time.

I’ve never seen the woman’s face, though once,

too far from here to count for much, I wished I could.

But it’s morning come again, and she,

as is her habit, begins to sing above the soup.

Somewhere, some angel pities me, as God

must once have pitied her: Her voice forgets

its tenement, and I neglect the words.

Scott Cairns, “Homeland of the Foreign Tongue” from The Translation of Babel (Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1990). Copyright © 1990 by Scott Cairns. Reprinted with the permission of the author.

Source: The Translation of Babel (University of Georgia Press, 1990)

Biography

Scott Cairns was born in Tacoma, Washington. He received his B.A. from Western Washington University, his M.A. from Hollins College, an M.F.A. from Bowling Green State University, and his Ph.D. from the University of Utah. Cairns has taught at numerous universities including University of North Texas, Old Dominion University, and the University of Missouri. He was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship in 2006.

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