Summary

The poem opens by discussing some of the people that enlist their help in translating old languages. Often the speaker is able to put together an idea of what the old text says, but other times the text is too obscure to decipher. The speaker always feels guilty when they fail in their task, even though the people who wrote it are long dead. The speaker reflects on finding an injured bird in their childhood, and how distraught they were when they failed to save it. Later, the speaker also mourned the loss of their mother. They consider some of the languages they’ve been able to unearth, and the parts that will be lost forever. The speaker is frustrated at the inevitability of time, change, and loss, though they do what they can to help these languages be remembered.

Analysis

“The Curator Speaks...