Those Who Stay a Long Way Out to Sea (by Ghandl of the Qayahl Llaanas, translated by Robert Bringhurst)
Those Who Stay a Long Way Out to Sea (by Ghandl of the Qayahl Llaanas, translated by Robert Bringhurst)
Original Text
Ghandl of the Qayahl Llaanas, Nine Visits to the Mythworld, trans. Robert Bringhurst (Vancouver: Douglas and McIntyre, 2000).
This
poem is reproduced on the Griffin Prize Web Site (from a volume on the 2001 Canadian Shortlist).
1And then there were the ten of them
2who went to hunt with dogs, they say.
3And after they had travelled for a while,
4the mist settled in.
5And they came to a steep cliff,
6and they climbed the cliff, they say.
7And then their dogs ran back and forth on the ground below,
8squawking up at them like gulls, they say.
9And then they built a fire on top of the cliff.
10The one they called the brainless one
11fed his hunting bow to the fire, they say.
12And after it had burned away completely,
13it lay there in plain sight on the ground below.
14Then he fed himself to the fire as well.
15For a while he burned.
16Then he vanished completely
17and stood in plain sight on the ground below.
18And he called to his elder brothers to do the same.
19«Come on, do what I did.
20I suffered no pain.»
21So they started to feed themselves to the fire.
22And one by one, as soon as they vanished,
23they stood on the ground.
24When the put in the next to eldest,
25his skin shriveled up and his eyes bulged.
26This was because he was frightened, they say.
27But after he vanished,
28he stood with the others below.
29Then the eldest did the same.
30That cliff is called The Tall Thin Rock, they say.
31Then they set off, they say.
32After they travelled a ways,
33a wren sang to one side of them.
34They could see that it punctured
35 a blue hole through the heart
36of the one who had passed closest to it, they say.
37They went a ways further
38and came to the head of Big Inlet, they say.
39And they went a ways further.
40A falcon’s feather floated there in front of them.
41They tied itinto the hair of the youngest, they say.
42They tied it with skin from the throat of a mallard.
43It made him look handsome.
44Then they came to a seasonal village.
45One house in the middle had roofplanks.
46They stayed there, they say.
47They gathered their food from the beds of blue mussels
48 at one end of town.
49And the brainless one played with the mussels.
50He was trying to spit them as far as he could.
51Soon the others were egging him on, they say.
52One of them climbed up on top of the house
53and held out his cape, away from his shoulder.
54After a while he looked at the cape.
55It was covered with feathers.
56It is said they did not understand
57that this was because they had broken their fast.
58They walked through the town,
59and they found an abandoned canoe, they say.
60It was covered with moss.
61Nettles grew over it too.
62They cleaned it and patched it.
63The brainless one made them a cedarbark bailer.
64He carved a perching songbird on the handle.
65Then they tied some feathers into another one’s hair.
66The brainless one got in the bow with a pole.
67And one of them lay on his back in the stern.
68They went down the inlet, they say.
69And they went for a ways,
70and they came to a town
71where a drum was sounding.
72A shaman was calling his powers.
73The firelight came through the doorway
74 and all the way down the shore.
75They landed below it.
76The bow man went up for a look,
77and as he came near:
78«The Spirit Who Handles the Bow Pole is coming ashore!»
79This made him embarrassed.
80He returned to the canoe.
81Another went up for a look,
82and as he came near:
83«Pierced by a Wren is coming ashore!»
84He looked at himself.
85He was punctured and blue.
86This made him embarrassed.
87He backed away.
88Another went up for a look,
89and when he came near,
90he also heard the shaman speaking.
91«Now the Spirit Who Holds up the Sky while He Travels
92is coming ashore!»
93He went back too.
94Then another went ashore,
95and a voice said,
96«Well now, the Spirit Who Runs on the Water
97is coming ashore.»
98Another went up for a look
99and when he came near:
100«Here is Swimming Puffin Spirit coming ashore.»
101He was embarrassed as well,
102and he backed away.
103Then the next one went ashore,
104and a voice said,
105«This is Falcon Feather Floating on the Water
106coming ashore!»
107He took a close look at the shaman.
108He saw that the shaman’s clothers were the same as his own.
109He went back too.
110Yet another went ashore,
111And when he came near:
112«Well now, Necklace of Clouds is coming ashore!»
113And he also backed off.
114The next went ashore,
115and as he came near:
116«Now Spirit with the Bulging Eyes is coming ashore!»
117The he remembered
118That something had happened to him, they say.
119Another went ashore.
120When he came near the doorway:
121«Well now, the Spirit Who Lies on His Back on the Water
122is coming ashore.»
123He went back to the canoe.
124Then the eldest came up for a look,
125and when he came near:
126«Now the Spirit Half of Whose Voice Is the Voice of the Raven,
127who’s in charge of the canoe, is coming ashore.»
128And the eldest one said,
129«It’s true: we have turned into spirits.
130If that’s how it is,
131we should be on our way.»
132They took some of the village children aboard,
133and they stuffed them into cracks in the hull of the canoe.
134From one end of town,
135 they gathered some grass to make nests.
136They arranged it around themselves
137where they were sitting.
138Then they headed for the open coast, they say.
139When the one with the pole pushed them off,
140the wood turned red wherever he touched it.
141He moved the canoe by himself with only the pole.
142As they travelled along,
143they found feathers afloat on the sea.
144They put them in a painted box and saved them.
145Flicker feathers were their favorite,
146and they saved them above all.
147They came to another town,
148and they beached the canoe.
149Not far away, a woman was crying.
150They brought her aboard.
151When this woman’s husband came in from his fishing,
152he saw someone’s arms embracing his wife.
153He threw live coals on the hands,
154but his wife was the only one there,
155and the only one screaming.
156She is the one who was sitting there crying.
157They took her aboard, they say.
158They opened the cracks in the hull,
159and they stuffed in her hands.
160That cured her, they say.
161They adopted her as their sister
162and gave here the seat reserved for the bailer.
163Then, they say, the arrived off Qaysun,
164and Fairweather Woman,
165 the headwater woman of Swiftcurrent Creek,
166 came out to meet them.
167«Hello, my brothers. I’ll give you directions.
168The eldest brother sits amidships.
169He’s in charge of the canoe.
170His name will be
171 Spirit Half of Whose Voice is the Voice of the Raven.
172«Half of the canoe should be Eagle
173and half of it Raven.
174Half of the dancing hats should be black
175and half of them white.
176«Next will be the one whose name is
177 Spirit with the Bulging Eyes.
178Next will be Pierced by a Wren.
179Next, the Spirit Who Holds up the Sky while He Travels.
180Next, the Spirit Who Runs on the Water.
181Next, the one named Swimming Puffin Spirit.
182Next, the one called Necklace of Clouds.
183Next, the Spirit Who Lies on His Back on the Water.
184Next, the Spirit Who Handles the Bow Pole.
185He will set the course of the canoe.
186He will take you wherever you go
187to give power to people.
188And the next to the youngest
189 will be Falcon Feather Floating on the Water.
190«Your sister, who sits in the stern,
191will be called the Spirit Woman Who Keeps Bailing.
192«Now, my brothers, take your seats in the canoe.
193Go to Charcoal Island.
194He’s the one who paints the spirit beings.
195He will paint you.
196«For four nights you will dance in your canoe.
197Then you will be finished with your changing.»
198Four years is what she meant, they say.
199That one also gave them clothes.
200He dressed them in dancing hats
201 and aprons with puffin-beak rattles.
202Then he wrapped a skin of cloud around the whole canoe.
203Inside the cloud, he assigned them their seats
204and built them the nests that they sit on.
205Then it was finished.
206This is where it ends.
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2011