And what I tried to do, I chose one other piece
to read from this collection that also includes the O'odham
language in it.
But it's going back and forth between English and O'odham.
And it's called Do'ag Weco.
Below the mountain or beneath the mountain, Do'ag Weco.
Ia 'ac gegok do'ag weco kc 'an 'u:gk ha'icu ñeid.
We stand below the mountain and look upward.
We look upward in humility, in prayer.
From the tops of mountain comes memories of stories, songs,
names of plants, animals we have long forgotten.
All people dream of the days they walked mountain paths.
They dream of their sturdy step, lack of fear
of a desolate mountaintop.
They see things there only rendered in song.
Lower parts of the mountains are for all humans.
We walk along the mountainside knowing ancestors bones sit
in the mountains.
They watch us as we pass.
We are not afraid.
On an unusually cool July day, we drive to Waw Giwulig.
Arriving at the foot of the mountain,
I place a towel on the damp bench and sit down.
This place is green and moist.
The air is blue.
Light mist drifts, swayed by breezes.
For a few hours on a summer day, this mountain
is in tune with the wet side of ocean islands.
Ia 'ac daḍhă do'ag weco kc 'an 'u:gk ha'icu ñeid.
We sit here below the mountain and look upward.
Ia 'ac daḍhă kc t-ho'igeid. Tt amjeḍ hab t-ju: mo hab a wua g O'odham c'am ha'icu ta:ñ g t-na:toikam.
T hab massa 'ab 'i-hi: 'i:da t-taccudag mat hab masma o i-hi: g wi'inam ṣu:dagĭ. Ñia'a.
Gewkdag 'att 'am tai. Duakag 'att 'am tai. Apedag 'att 'am tai.
Att amjeḍ 'am 'ep 'i-da:mc c hab hahawa 'ep cei.
Gewkdag 'att 'am m-tai att hab masma s-ap 'in o 'oyopod c 'an o 'i-ha-we:mtad hegam mo pi 'eḍgid g gewkdag.
S-duakag 'att 'am m-tai 'att hab massa s-ap 'in o 'oyopod c o s-he: kigk.
S-apedag 'att 'am m-tai 'att hab massa s-ap 'in 'o 'oyopod c s-ape wuḍ 'o O'odhamk.
Ia 'ac daḍhă do'ag weco kc 'an 'u:gk ha'icu ñeid.
We sit here below this mountain and look upward.
Before we do anything else, we open our voices
to a greater being.
We say we are grateful for being allowed
to be here in this wonder.
And like flooding water, the requests for gifts begin.
We ask for strengths.
We ask for help.
We ask for goodness.
Finally, we feel need.
We feel a need to justify our request.
We begin again.
We ask for strength to complete the things we have
started to do with our lives.
We ask for spring so that we may walk
with a sturdy step, and good breath,
and clean light in our eyes.
We ask for goodness so that we may
have open minds, open hearts.
We ask for patience to deal with those who require it
and pass it on to those who are impatient.
We ask for forgiveness, so that we
can forgive those who require it and pass it
on to those who are unforgiving.
Ia 'ac daḍhă do'ag weco kc 'an 'u:gk ha'icu ñeid.
We sit here below the mountain and look upward.