Translations

Only two girls in class this time, so we headed outside to write. I had brought in a few poems written in foreign languages for them to "translate" into English based on how the words looked and sounded. They found the whole poems to be a little overwhelming, so they instead made a long list of English words "translated" from the poem and then used those words in an original poem:

When I say the word misoka
the color pink comes out of my eyes.
The word misoka sounds like enjoying
a day in the sunshine. Misoka is wine
like Safia said that her paper is flying away.
Misoka is like laughing. Safia's beautiful
laugh makes the beautiful sun come out. I love when
Safia laughs. Misoka is riding a bike
on a nice day with my friends and running.
-Adout

The lemon is eating the fox.
The lemon is huge and the fox
is just a tiny baby. In Colombia,
people use aprons to catch food
like a fishing net. The sea is transporting
camels from desert to desert. Cinnamon
makes me remember campers fighting
for justice. Safia owns the camp. Safia
is not how she usually is. She is going
crazy all over the place, and her friend
Adout is trying to calm her down.
Safia likes to compose herself and she
likes the lemons. Giant lemons,
because they are her friends.
-Safia

After they were finished, they chose to write a few color poems like the ones they've been writing in school:

What is red?
Red is a fire truck siren, red is a hydrant.
Red is a hummingbird feeder, an electric guitar.
Red is Safia's scarf shining and helping the sun shine too.
When you cut yourself, red is your blood. Red is
a valentine's heart to give to someone you love.
Red is a cherry, an apple, an Indian fig.
Red. You can taste it as you bite it.
-Safia

Flowers are blue, blue is candy, blue is a bike,
blue is a sled. Blue is in love with the color pink.
Blue is a star, a lake, a car driving everywhere.
Blue is a friend that loves to make friends.
Blue said that she is a girl and she likes my teacher.
-Adout

Safia then wrote a longer piece about her scarf. It's nice to improvise with a smaller group!

My red scarf shines bright and helps the sun shine too. When I wear it the sun shines, and when I don't the sky is dark. My grandma bought it in a marketplace in Kenya and forgot to give it to me before I left Africa. When she came to America, she left it in Rochester, NY, so there was still no way for me to get the scarf. So one day I went to Rochester and my grandma gave me the red scarf and a yellow one, bright and sparkly. Together they looked orange, just like my dress. It reminds me of my grandma when I wear it, sitting lonely with her children all gone.
-Safia