An international anthology of fiction and poetry written in vernacular English traces how dialect literature has evolved throughout the past two centuries, in a collection that includes examples written by such figures as Robert Burns, Mark Twain, and Zora Neale Hurston. Original. A global anthology of fiction and poetry in vernacular English. Introduction: This Is MaTrooth 15 SECTION ONE Raal Right Singin' : Vernacular Poetry 33 Louise Bennett 37 Colonization in Reverse and Bans O' Killing 38 Wat a joyful news, Miss Mottle, I feel like me heart gwine burs, Jamaica people colonizin Englan in reverse. Kamau Brathwaite 42 Wings of a Dove 43 So beat dem drums dem, spread dem wings dem, watch dem fly dem, soar dem high dem, clear in the glory of the Lord. Robert Burns 49 Auld Lang Syne, Highland Mary and Bonnie Lesley 50 We'll tak a cup o'kindness yet, for auld lang syne. Paul Laurence Dunbar 56 A Negro Love Song and When Malindy Sings 57 When hit comes to roof right singin', 't ain't no easy thing to do. Langston Hughes 61 Mother to Son and Po' Boy Blues 62 When I was home de sunshine seemed like gold. Since I come up North de whole damn world's turned cold. Linton Kwesi Johnson 64 Inglan Is a Bitch 65 Inglan is a bitch, dere's no escapin it Paul Keens-Douglas 68 Wukhand 69 Sah, gimme a wuk nah. Ah lookin ole but ah strong. Rudyard Kipling 73 Tommy 74 makin' mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleep, is cheaper than them uniforms, an' they're starvation cheap Tom Leonard 77 Unrelated Incidents No. 3 78 if a toktaboot thi trooth lik wanna yoo scruffy' widny thingk it wuz troo. Mary McCabe 80 Comin Back Ower the Border 81 I Comin back ower the Border, the first ye ken ye're home, it isna list the biggins, the brick gien wey tae stane Claude McKay 82 Quashie to Buccra 83 You tas'e petater an' you say it sweet but you no know how hard we wuk fe it Mutabaruka 85 Dis Poem 86 dis poem shall speak of the wretched sea that washed ships to these shores M. NourbeSe Philip 90 Questions! Questions! 91 Where she, where she, where she be, where she gone? Ntozake Shange 92 no more love poems #1 93 ever since i realized there wuz someone callt a colored girl an evil woman a bitch or a nag i been tryin not to be that & leave bitterness in somebody else's cup SECTION TWO So Like I Say...: Vernacular Short Stories 97 Charles Chesnutt 101 Po' Sandy 102 w'en Mars Marrabo's chilluns growed up en married off, dey all un 'em wanted dey daddy fer ter gin 'em Sandy fer a weddin' present. Junot Diaz 115 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao 116 Oscar was a carajito who was into girls mad young. Patricia Grace 165 Letters from Whetu 166 How slack finding myself the only one of the old gang in the sixth form. How slack and BORING. Zora Neale Hurston 181 Spunk and Story in Harlem Slang 182 Looka theah, folkses!cried Elijah Mosley, slapping his leg gleefully. Theah they go, big as life an' brassy as tacks. John Kasaipwalova 202 Betel Nut Is Bad Magic for Airplanes 203 We was standing about thirty of we, waiting to catch our things. We was chewing plenty buwa like civilized people. We was not spitting or making rubbish. Earl Lovelace 214 Joebell and America 215 Joebell find that he seeing too much hell in Trinidad so he make up his mind to leave and go away. Rohinton Mistry 232 The Ghost of Firozsha Baag 233 First time I saw a ghost here and people found out, how much fun they made of me. Calling me crazy, saying it is time for old ayah to go back to Goa, back to her muluk, she is seeing things. Mark Twain 251 The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and A True Story, Repeated Word for Word as I Heard It 252 I was bawn down 'mongst de slaves; I knows all 'bout slavery 'cause I ben one of 'em my own set. . Irvine Welsh 266 A Soft Touch and Granny's Old Junk 267 It wis good fir a while wi Katriona, but she did wrong by me. Thomas Wolfe 282 Only the Dead Know Brooklyn 283 It'd take a guy a lifetime to know Brooklyn t'roo and t'roo. An' even den, yuh wouldn't know it all. SECTION THREE I Wanna Say I Am Somebody: Selections from Vernacular Novels 291 Peter Carey 295 from True History of the Kelly Gang 296 My 1st memory is of Mother breaking eggs into a bowl and crying that Jimmy Quinn my 15 yr old uncle were arrested by the traps. Roddy Doyle 300 from The Snapper 301 What's it like? Are yeh pukin' up in the momin's? Alan Duff 321 from Once Were Warriors 322 My branch of the Heke line was descended from a slave. A fulla taken prisoner by the enemy when he shouldahe woulda been better off dyin. Jonathan Safran Foer 325 An Overture to the Commencement of a Very Rigid Journey, from Everything is Illuminated 326 I dig to disseminate very much currency at famous nightclubs in Odessa. Uzodinma Iweala 330 from Beasts of No Nation 331 I am not bad boy. I am not bad boy. I am soldier and soldier is not bad if he is killing. Oonya Kempadoo 339 Baywatch and de Preacher, from Tide Running 340 Rocks looking just like Plymuth Rocks, same gulls squalling, same kind'a sea slapsing. R. Zamora Linmark 345 Face, from Rolling the R's 346 You know, I one virgin when come for findin' the right words for explain that what I do and how I feel are not the same. Gautam Malkani 348 from Londonstani 349 Shudn't b callin us Pakis, innit, u dirrty gora. Frances Molloy 362 from No Mate for the Magpie 363 A could see that me ma an' do had their plans laid, for me to carry on workin' in the factory till a married wan of these boyos, an' a wanted none of it. Sapphire 377 from Push 378 Man don't nobody know it but it ain' no joke for me to be here in this school. Ken Saro-Wiwa 390 from Sozaboy: A Novel in Rotten English 391 said to myself, trouble don begin. Sam Selvon 398 from The Housing Lark 399 But in truth and in fact, loneliness does bust these fellars arse. SECTION FOUR A New English: Essays on Vernacular Literature 421 Chinua Achebe 425 from The African Writer and the English Language 426 Gloria Anzald a 436 How to Tame a Wild Tongue, from Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestizo 437 James Baldwin 452 If Black English Isn't a Language,Then Tell Me, What Is? 453 Kamau Brathwaite 458 from History of the Voice: The Development of Nation Language in Anglophone Caribbean Poetry 459 Thomas Macaulay 469 from Minute on Indian Education 470 Gabriel Okara 475 African Speech...English Words 476 M. NourbeSe Philip 480 The Absence of Writing or How I Almost Became a Spy 481 Amy Tan 502 Mother Tongue 503 Glossary 511 Suggestions for Further Reading 519 Acknowledgments 529 Credits 531