Thank you, Liz.
[SPEAKING O'ODHAM]
So thank you very much for coming to our series.
Of course, my appreciation to all of you who
have been coming to all of our reading so far.
And hopefully, you will join us for the rest of them.
So this evening, I think I'm going
to read a little bit from the three books that I bought.
And then as a special treat, you will
be the first to hear some new work.
So I'm excited about that myself.
As the topic of our seminar is water, and Indian communities,
and of course, water as a political entity
and also as a poetic one.
I think my work offers much to that topic.
And this afternoon's discussion in the seminar
pulled some of those things forward by the students
who read the work and had some great questions and insights.
So I think I've chosen pieces that always references
water one way or another.
When Larry first approached me about doing this seminar
about water, my first thought was rain
as a first source of water.
And much of my work, of course, deals
with that particular topic.
So I will start with the piece that
is about rain for the O'odham.
"O'odham Dances."
E-atkǐ ‘ep ‘ai mat o ‘e-keihi g O’odham o ‘e-keihi kut hab masma ab o ‘i ha-miabǐ g ju:kǐ
‘apt ge cuhug oidk o ka:d mat hab o kaijjid:
“‘oig ‘o, ‘oig ‘o ‘at hahawa o ma:si
‘oig ‘o, ‘oig ‘o am o aṣkia wi’is g ñeñe’i
‘oig ‘o, ‘oig ‘o ‘at hahawa o ‘i-ceṣ g taṣ
‘oig ‘o, ‘oig ‘o am o aṣkia wi’is g s-cuhug ‘oig ‘o, ‘oig ‘o.”
It's time for the ritual.
To dance, to sing so that rain may come,
so that the Earth may be fixed one more time.
Throughout the night, a night too short
for such important work, the people's energies converge.
They call upon the night.
They call upon the stars in the darkness.
They call upon the hot breezes.
They call upon the heat coming off the Earth.
They implore all animals.
The ones that fly in the sky.
The ones that crawl upon the Earth.
The ones that walk.
The ones that swim in the water and the ones that move
in between water, sky, and Earth.
They employ them to focus on the moisture.
All are dependent.
From the dark dryness of the desert, on that one
night the call of the people is heard.
It is heard by the oceans, winds, and clouds.
All respond sympathetically.
Throughout the night, you hear the one who is assigned
yelling: "'oig 'o, 'oig 'o before it becomes light.
'oig 'o, 'oig 'o there are still songs to be sung.
'oig 'o, 'oig 'o before the sun comes up.
'oig 'o, 'oig 'o there is still a little bit of night left."
With the dawn we face the sunrise.
We face it with all our humility.
We are mere beings.
All we can do is extend our hands to the first light.
In our hands we capture the first light.
We take it and cleanse ourselves.
We touch our eyes with it.
We touch our face with it.
We touch our hair.
We touch our limbs.
We rub our hands together, we want
to keep this light with us.
We are complete with this light.
This is the way we begin and end things.
So, that, to me, is what water is about.