Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Louis Yako

Quote by Louis Yako

“In all the languages I speak, they say, ‘I fell in love.’ I always wondered why we have to fall if we are really loved. Why do we not stand in love? Why do we love someone to ‘death’ not to life? Perhaps the day we learn how to stand in language, we shall also be able to stand in love, to love our lovers to life, and to turn the language we speak from chains in our hands into wings to help us fly away from the prison we have built from it.”

Quote by Louis Yako

Create image

Author

Louis Yako

Browse famous quotes and profile details for Louis Yako. more

You May Also Like

“Another word we hear repeatedly is ‘tolerance’. Many people use this word positively in situations like ‘tolerating difference’… If you simply search the linguistic meaning of the word, the first definition you will get is (tolerance: noun): ‘to allow the existence, occurrence, or practice of something that one does not necessarily like or agree with without interference.’ In this sense, using this word is disturbing because it suggests two things: first, the person who is doing the tolerating has the upper hand in everything; that they ‘tolerate’ others out of the kindness of their hearts. Second, it gives those doing the ‘tolerating’ the right to change their mind and stop ‘tolerating’ others any time they please, which could make them commit violence against those they deem ‘intolerable’, since they have the upper hand on matters. In brief, this leaves no voice, power, or agency to the tolerated. I never understand how any native English speaker could thoughtlessly use ‘tolerate’ as a positive word in such situations. How could they use the same word to tell us that they tolerate a medication, an immigrant, or another religion? We need a culture that teaches us to appreciate, to love, and to affirm others not to tolerate them!”

InspirationalWisdomRacismToleranceColonialismImperialismAmerican CultureDecolonizationLanguages And CultureLinguistic Hegemony
Author:Louis Yako
Create image

“The Uncultured Poet (A Sonnet) There is a reason I never translate my works, You can translate information but not sentiment. So I carve humanity with not one but many tongues, Yet due to alphabetical wall, much remain unspoken. Human and culture must grow together in harmony, All traditions of stagnation must be thrown away. If a human can come forward across conditioning, Why can't a culture do the same and meet halfway! I sacrificed my language so I could feel you better, Now I can't read the tongue of Tagore I was raised in. Such an uncultured poet whose culture is the world, Asks the cultures with borders just one little thing. Take some lessons from Mustafa Kemal in modernizing. A culture is enhanced, not diminished, by latinizing.”

Poets And PoetryLinguistic HegemonyLinguistic Drift
Book:Amantes Assemble: 100 Sonnets of Servant Sultans
Create image

“Fukuzawa looked extremely surly that day. The weekend crowd rolled back like the tide as he strode down the avenue. Even cars stopped as he walked across the pedestrian crossing, even though their light was green. All of this was due to the sullen aura radiating from his expression. However, he wasn't exactly in a bad mood. He was drowning in self-loathing.”

FukuzawaResting Bitch FaceImagine Being This Badass
Book:文豪ストレイドッグス 探偵社設立秘話 [Bungō Stray Dogs Tanteisha Setsuritsu Hiwa]
Create image

“Often we have three terms for the same thing--one Anglo-Saxon, one French, and one clearly absorbed from Latin or Greek. The Anglo-Saxon word is typically a neutral one; the French word connotes sophistication; and the Latin or Greek word, learnt from a written text rather than from human contact, is comparatively abstract and conveys a more scientific notion.”

English Language History
Book:The Secret Life of Words: How English Became English
Create image

“С каждым пересказом самообладание Сайго становилось всё более полным, его монолог, обращенный к Бэппу, всё более длинным, а напряженность этой сцены всё более интенсивной. ... Невзирая на физиологию, традиция требовала, чтобы Сайго сел на раздробленное бедро и спокойно попросил Бэппу помочь ему умереть. Сайго был легендой, и японские СМИ решили тиражировать легенду, а не реального человека.”

SamuraiSaigo TakamoriSeppuku
Book:The Last Samurai: The Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori
Create image