[SPEAKING O'ODHAM] Poetics and Politics.
[SPEAKING O'ODHAM]
Just started out expressing my appreciation for the invitation
to be part of the semester's course,
and to be your first reader this evening.
I'm very honored, and of course, I'm
always honored to have the opportunity
to read here at our campus, and of course
here at the Poetry Center.
And I'd like to start out with a bilingual piece, just
to, of course, honor the language work that was referred
to, and of course to honor the O'odham people who are here
in this place.
Cuk Ṣon. This place, Tucson.
And this first poem comes from the little bilingual collection
Jewed 'I-Hoi, Earth Movement.
And this is the title piece.
Jewed 'I-Hoi.
"Kus hascu hab a:g mat hab o cei, “añ ep ta:tk mat si ‘i-hoi g jeweḍ,
nap pi ṣa’i ta:tk a:pi?” “Pi’a, pi’a.”
Ñia, kus hascu hab a:g? Kutp hems heg hab a:g mat o ṣ??-hai g jeweḍ k o ‘i-hoi
a no heg hab a:g mat sikol o memḍad mo g milga:n b a’aga rotation.
Ñia, kutp hems heg hab a:g mo hegai ta:tk.
Kutp hems hab e-elid mo an ke:k id jeweḍ da:m c da’a an da:m ka:cim oidc.
Ceṣṣajcug g jeweḍ hab masma mat hemakc g s-melidkam kawyu o ceṣṣajcug.
An meḍad c g mo’oj ṣelim an e-wiḍut huhu’u mehidag ku:bs oidc. S-ke:g hab ma:s.
Heg an we:maj wiappoi mo an ko:mcug g taṣ c gahu amjeḍ i-bebhe si alig ta:gio amjeḍ gamhu hukkam hudñig ta:gio.
Ñia, kut hegai maṣ d maṣad ceḍ o odham o si al hehemad matṣ an o bij.
Riding the Earth.
She said she felt the Earth move again.
I never knew whether she meant she felt a tremor
or whether it was the rotation of the Earth.
I like to think she felt the rotation, because anyone can
feel a tremor, and when she felt this,
she could see herself standing on the Earth's surface,
her thick, wide feet solidly planted, toes digging in,
her visualization so strong she almost
feels her body arch against the centrifugal force
of the rotation.
She sees herself with her long hair floating, floating
in the atmosphere of stardust.
She rides her planet the way a child rides a toy.
Her company is the boy who takes the Sun on its daily journey,
and the man in the Moon smiles as she passes by."
So I start with journeys, and the end, you will see,
will be coming home with the last poem.