Foreign Wife Elegy

My language has its own world 
where he doesn’t know how to live,
but he should learn my language;
then he can call my mother to say
that I am dead. I drive too fast 
and someone else drives too fast 
and we crash on the icy road.
The death sweeps me away.
He can tell this to my mother 
if he learns my language. 
Her large yellow voice travels 
and hits his body, but at least she knows 
that I am dead, and if I die,
I want him to tell my mother 
with his deep voice shaking.

From Foreign Wife Elegy by Yuko Taniguchi. Copyright © 2004 by Yuko Taniguchi. Published by Coffee House Press. Used by permission of the publisher. All rights reserved.