Today is -- at least according to NPR's "Morning Edition," National Poem in Your Pocket Day. That led me to share one of my favorites with you, but maybe you should only read this if you have a Blackberry or something. Otherwise, the poem isn't really in your pocket, even if it's in "the pocket," as musicians are fond of saying.

This poem, written by Luciano Ravizza of Castell'Alfero -- a small town outside Asti, Italy -- is about how his grandson always thinks Ravizza is speaking English when he's, in fact, speaking the Asti dialect of the Piemontese language. It's a testament to an older generation eager to maintain its traditions in the face of a younger one that can't distinguish it from another foreign language.

It was a touchstone for me while I was compiling a CD of this and other poems last year and I'm especially fond of the name of the short work, as anyone who knows me can attest.

I love listening to poetry in languages I don't speak. I can read the translation to get the gist, if I don't already, but not focusing only on the meaning allows me to savor the rhythm and the sonance. Because, really, if the meaning of the words were the sole motive, why would I even read poetry?

Here is the poem in Piemonteis and in English and here is an mp3 of Luciano Ravizza reading it.

Luca
I have a grandson in my house,
Luca we baptized him,
He is not yet three years old, but with the little he talks he makes himself well understood,
He is smart, more than you can imagine,
With his grandma nearby in the courtyard, he likes to walk around, then he starts to play, and he is so much fun to watch, he is so free and easy.

When he comes home from preschool,
He jumps and plays in the grass. He likes to chase the dog,
and he tries to grab its tail with his hands.
He then takes his tricycle and goes around some more,
While he explains what he is doing,

If I speak in Piemontese,
Luca listens to me.
Afterward, he tells me I speak a foreign language,
that my words are English words,
Anyway, he repeats them with pleasure and you can see he really wants to learn them.

Luca
Aj'heu nà nuud che er gira per cà
Luca a luma batsà,
trei ani a rà ancura nan cumpì,
ma con ir sò linguagi ben a sfà capì,
arè svig, che ad pù as-por nan dì,
con rà nona dausen,
ant-rà curt, ai pias fè i sò girulen,
pò as bità a gighè,
rè propi da bajchè,
tant a rè sbarasen,

Quand da rà sjlù au turna a cà,
er sauta er gioga an-ter prà,
aj pijas fè curi ir can,
e rà cua aj pija an man,
pò con ir triclico in gir ar fà,
mentri tà spiega l'uch che-rà mangià,

Sè me parl an piemuntajs,
chial mas-scutà è pò man dis,
che mè parl di nat paijs,
che ir mè parlè inglaijs arè,
ma ir paroli che mè dis,
a-i ripet vurentè,
pirchè as vugh che
ij vor propi amparè.