1 there are no handles upon a language
2 whereby men take hold of it
3 And mark it with signs for its remembrance.
4 It is a river, this language,
5 Once in a thousand years
6 Breaking a new course
7 Changing its way to the ocean.
8 It is mountain effluvia
9 Moving to valleys
10 And from nation to nation
11 Crossing borders and mixing.
12 Languages die like rivers.