The Same Old Story

Immigrant Blues
Li-Young Lee

People have been trying to kill me since I was born,
a man tells his son, trying to explain
the wisdom of learning a second tongue.

It’s an old story from the previous century
about my father and me.

The same old story from yesterday morning
about me and my son.

It’s called “Survival Strategies
and the Melancholy of Racial Assimilation.”

It’s called “Psychological Paradigms of Displaced Persons,”

called, “The Child Who’d Rather Play than Study.”

Practice until you feel
the language inside you, says the man.

But what does he know about inside and outside,
my father who was spared nothing
in spite of the languages he used?

And me, confused about the flesh and the soul,
who asked once into a telephone,
Am I inside you?

You’re always inside me, a woman answered,
at peace with the body’s finitude,
at peace with the soul’s disregard
of space and time.

Am I inside you? I asked once
lying between her legs, confused
about the body and the heart.

If you don’t believe you’re inside me, you’re not,
she answered, at peace with the body’s greed,
at peace with the heart’s bewilderment.

It’s an ancient story from yesterday evening

called “Patterns of Love in Peoples of Diaspora,”

called “Loss of the Homeplace
and the Defilement of the Beloved,”

called “I Want to Sing but I Don’t Know Any Songs.”
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This poem is about how a man is trying to be accepted and trying to accept a different culture. The poet gives titles to his experiences in order to make them more specific. He tries to put names to things so that people can understand what he's talking about.
When Li-Young Lee writes about being "inside," I feel as if he is talking about knowing or accepting. When he talks about language being inside, he means that one should love the country from which the language comes as if it were one's own. When Lee says, "Am I inside you?" he is asking if the woman thinks about him, if the woman loves him. She answers, "If you don’t believe you’re inside me, you’re not," which means that if he does not believe that she loves him, she doesn't.
This poet uses the words, "lying between her legs," it gives the reader a picture in his or her mind. This quote is an example of imagery. The lines, "at peace with the body’s greed, at peace with the heart’s bewilderment," use personification because they are giving human qualities to objects. Bodies don't have greed, and hearts don't become bewildered, however a person can be both of those things.