I’m happy to say I opened up the book of poetry in Kweyol, the one with the left-wing rhetoric in the preface, and I could understand it! I had no idea. I can check my comprehension by looking at the English translation and knowing French is major since so much of the lexicon of Kweyol derives directly from French. The word laj is, of course, the French word “age” with the article. To say “the age” in Kweyol, you’d say, “laj-a”.
Yesterday I found a book of poetry in Old English I’m using now. Old English is just about impossible to understand but just enough of a peep can be gained that it’s worth reading out loud.