Let's speak our tongue before it's cut off

[This is the English translation of my poem 'Parlons la langue avant qu'on ne la coupe', which was translated into English thanks to Robin McKenzie, a Fellow at the University of Edinburgh. The original French version is also available in my blog, and has been published in an anthology called 'Tonguefreed', by the University of Portsmouth. My poem won 2nd prize for Creative Writing in a Foreign Language 2007]

This is my tongue.
It's neither black nor white.
I am not ashamed of it,
It indicates my culture and my race.
It's always there, as a trace.
Let's speak our tongue before it's cut off.

This is my tongue.
Is it a dialect?
A dialect? What's that?
Half a tongue, or a third of one?
A third of a tongue for the Third World.
Let's speak our tongue before it's cut off.

This is my tongue.
I am not ashamed of it
But I speak yours - that's clear,
So that you can understand,
And yet you will never understand.
Let's speak our tongue before it's cut off.

This is your tongue,
Whose importance you measure.
It is written in blood,
That reminds us of massacre,
Slavery, torture and hatred.
The Great Empires fall.
Speak your tongue before it's cut off!

http://www.port.ac.uk/special/creativewritinginaforeignlanguage/gallery/20062007/WorkTitle,67627,en.html