Vagabond Multilingual Journal Spring 2014 | Page 4

Letter From the Editor
Prepare to embark on a journey - a unique journey - through voices
representing the breadth and depth of UC Berkeley, of California, of
the United States, of our world.
We have a wonderful selection of pieces this semester; from poetry to
prose to photography to painting. Each of these pieces comes from an
individual with experiences and desires and intentions particular to
themselves. But we hope that within each of these pieces you may find
a little of yourself as well.
Language is communication. We speak to each other to learn, to
know, to understand. Some things are untranslatable; translating
between any two languages can be a challenge. Even crafting words in
one language can be a challenge; language is so vast and yet so limited.
We commend our writers for making that leap to express themselves
through two languages; essentially, two mediums.
Art and photography are communication. To communicate without
words is a much different task. Not necessarily harder, not necessarily
easier. Different. We send and receive a different type of message. We
commend our artists for working to send their messages through the
hand and the eyes.
Vagabond is not meant to be a lecturer; we do not seek for our readers
to consume and discard. Instead we ask that you help us create a
dialogue. Send us an email or a Facebook message. Let us know how
we’re doing. Tell us your thoughts and experiences. We believe that it
really means something when we are the only multilingual journal on
campus, and one of the very few on college campuses anywhere in the
United States.
We need to talk about language because our language is how we talk.
From your editor,

Gigi Gilbert-Igelsrud