---
title: Toki Pona
draft: false
tags:
  - conlang
  - vocabulary
  - simplicity
summary: A constructed language with an extremely limited vocabulary
links:
  wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toki_Pona
  official: https://tokipona.org/
---

![The Toki Pona logo](../toki-pona.webp)

I've enjoyed thinking about this #conlang a lot! I depend a lot on phrasing things precisely to express myself — even in everyday interactions (which can get confusing & frustrating when there's no way anyone else could be aware of the nuance in my word choice…) — so Toki Pona is incredibly interesting.

With only ~120 words and 14 characters it's _tiny_, and forces you to talk around 

## alone - a poem

_Quite an intense one! I'm yet to find other pre-translated toki-pona poems. Perhaps I'll try translating one at some point!_

{{< translation "tok" "en" >}}
ijo li moku e mi.\
mi wile pakala.\
pimeja li tawa insa kon mi.\
jan ala li ken sona e pilin ike mi.\
toki musi o, sina jan pona mi wan taso.\
telo pimeja ni li telo loje mi, li ale mi.\
tenpo ale la pimeja li lon.\
wan taso

---

I am devoured.\
I must destroy.\
Darkness fills my soul.\
No one can understand my suffering.\
O poetry! My only friend.\
This ink is my blood, is my life.\
And Darkness shall reign forevermore.
{{< /translation >}}

[source](https://www.tokipona.org/angst.html)

## Poetry book

[A collection of 27 poems](https://tokipona.org/toki_lili_27_poems_in_toki_pona.pdf) listed on the homepage

## Computer-written poetry

Someone [wrote code to write (semi-sensical) poetry](https://kevingal.com/blog/toki-poetry.html) in Toki Pona, which looks really fun.

## Fonts

There seem to be a number of fonts that people have created for the _written_ form of toki pona, like [Fairfax HD](https://www.kreativekorp.com/software/fonts/fairfaxhd/) which covers 'all the conlangs in the [registry](https://www.kreativekorp.com/ucsur/)' which will definitely be fun to play with.

{{< figure src="../toki-pona-text.webp" caption="A sample of characters of Toki Pona written in the FairfaxHD font." >}}