"Sun Dance Poem"

Direct link to "Sun Dance Poem" MP3

According to the notes to the sound-tape that accompanied the first edition of Always Coming Home, these poems will have been going to be recorded on site in the Valley of the Na, by the archeologist Pandora, a very long time from now. According to other sources, they were recorded in Todd Barton's studio in Ashland, by Tabit and Intrumo, in 1985. The language is Kesh. The "Sun Dance Poem" is a meditational poem, made and spoken by the carpenter Buck of Sinshan, recorded in the Blue Clay heyimas in December. The Sun Dance or winter solstice festival is the greatest ceremony of the Kesh year, celebrating the mystical rejoining into a round dance of all that seems separate, the earth and sky, the near and far, the unborn, the living, and the dead.

Wakwahwav Arrakou Rru wetom darra daigoravanes hwa (...sa, par, arai) Híó lemaha yelemaha Híó logolemaha yelemaha Híó folilolemaha yelemaha Híó lemaha emwey yelemaha Viddisur hwoi udsurd gade ambad shewey haitrousur baroi udsurd gade ambad shewey peuvyaisur gadesur yai amoud shewey inyesur inye poud wey shewey Rru whehom darra daigoravanes geshe (...peham, rahem, yai) Yewey gewakwa yehoum emwey logowakwa, yehoum, folilowakwa yehoum. ge-emweyem wakwa-an yehoum

Sun Dance Poem Once you said the round word: sun (...sky, light, day) May beauty be beautiful May beauty have been beautiful May beauty still be beautiful May beauty always be beautiful We are weak and need help from all We are afraid and need kindness from all We are foolish and need to think together We are nothing much without one another Once you said this round word: life (death, soul, mind) It is mysterious, endless It has always been mysterious, endless, the dance will go on, endless. it is going on in mystery, endless