FLR

Them's my sentiments!
(William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair)

It's not a god, it's not a guide
And nor the ghost of former lives,
What is it, then, that's deep inside?
A rabbit thinks with me.

Clouds race: their world aloft, unknown,
The money-spiders' scurry-stones,
The fox-fear-flash of red and brown:
A rabbit sees with me.

The new-mown hay upon the breeze,
Bright flowers, nectar-seeking bees,
Relaxing scent of world at peace:
A rabbit smells with me.

A strident barking rends the night,
A stamp! and rabbits full in flight,
Then sudden-strangled squeal of fright:
A rabbit hears with me.

Ven u li ma, um bralvaoil
Lay nayo sisi; methrahil
Ol flay, ol émar... ol elil:
A naylte lay 'sith mi.

And so it is at last that I
No longer fear, nor yet deny,
But joyful to the heavens cry:
Ah, Rabbit breathes with me!

This is an intensely personal poem for me; one that goes to the very core of my feelings about furriness. The gradual progression from curiosity through apprehension to joyful realisation mirrors closely my own journey towards accepting myself for the fur that I am. The title comes from the first few characters of my Furry Code, which you can see on the home page - F for fursona, L for Order Lagomorpha and R for Rabbit.

The fifth stanza is in Lapine; a precise translation of the nuances of the language is not possible, but a reasonable rendering into English would be:

In my head, these hopes
Leap again; stories
Of feeding, of mating... of predators:
And a rabbit is with you.

That's right - mi means "you". However, the final line of that verse can also be read as meaning, "I, Rabbit, am with you," in the sense of the narrator feeling part of the great lapine family personified (lapinified?) by Rabbit; or even, "and Lapine is with you," used here in much the same way as a Scot might say, "you have the Gaelic," ie the ability to speak the language. If you'd like to learn some Lapine for yourself, then have a look at Frithaes! An Introduction to Colloquial Lapine over on my other site, Bits'n'Bob-stones.