The Song of the Stars
The Song of the Stars
Original Text
The Penguin Treasury of Popular Canadian Poems and Songs. Edited by John Robert Colombo. Toronto, ON: Penguin, 2002: 13.
2We sing with our light;
3We are the birds of fire;
4We fly over the sky.
5Our light is a voice;
6We make a road for spirits,
7For the spirits to pass over.
8Among us are three hunters
9Who chase a bear;
10There never was a time
11When they were not hunting.
12We look down on the mountains.
13This is the Song of the Stars.
Notes
1] This lyric was collected by the journalist and linguist Charles G. Leland from the Passamaquoddy on Campobello Island, New Brunswick, in 1882. He translated it into English from Algonkian. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1884
Publication Notes
Leland, Charles. The Algonquin Legends of New England; or Myths and Folk Lore of the Micmac, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot Tribes. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co.; Cambridge, Mass.: Riverside Press, 1884.
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire, assisted by Ana Berdinskikh
RPO Edition
2009