American Indian poetry

I. North American Indian Poetry

To fully understand North American Indian poetry, we must understand its historical origin and the needs and aspirations of the life that produced it. Singing is one of the important activities in Indian tribal life. Most of the lyrics were originally religious and secular rituals, praises, chanting and painting symbols. Poetry is developed from these lyrics. Indians seldom regard singing as an entertainment activity, nor as a "voice" to express personal feelings. An Indian once said, "Anyone who wants to achieve extraordinary things must have extraordinary power." Singing is the best way to absorb this extraordinary power, and it is a means for Indians to strive for success in almost every field of life.

Indians have a wide range of motives for poetry creation: praising the gods and praying for blessing; Make the treatment work; Dialogue with the gods through songs and dances at festival parties; Ask God for help when hunting, raising horses and planting; Praise the merits of the gods; Tell the history of the tribe; Declare the root of all things to people; Teach people to behave appropriately; Express lofty sentiments; Describe a fantasy; Pacify children; Inspire love, ridicule for fun, ridicule opponents and confuse enemies; Praise celebrities; Mourn the dead and encourage the spirit of martial arts; Express personal feelings; Describe the beauty of nature; Depicting folk legend figures; In order to relax in the heavy work; Enliven the atmosphere of tribal competition; Either simply to express joy or just for fun.

Most Indian poems translated into English are basically poems used for magic or religious activities. Dr. Washington Matthews collected 16 1 folk songs from Navajo people and translated them into English. The following poem is one of them.

What a beautiful voice decorated this country!

It comes from heaven;

Rolling dark clouds,

Thunderbolt Lei Zhen,

One by one, the echoes kept coming.

The beautiful voice that adorns this country.

What a beautiful voice decorated this country!

It comes from the earth;

Vast grassland

Grasshoppers sing together,

One by one, the echoes kept coming.

The beautiful voice that adorns this country.

Although some poems seem to describe the beauty of nature at first glance, they are all related to religion and worship of gods in the eyes of Indians. Gibois people believe in witchcraft, and many short hymns they recite show their people's poetic feelings about their surroundings. The following two poems express Gibois people's fresh feelings about the sunny day in June:

On this endless grassland

It feels like spring in summer.

Poems describing dreamland are very common. These poems are either personal hallucinations after fasting or from worship ceremonies. For example, many poems of Dancing God are such works. The following poem roughly expresses all the hopes of "jumping to the gods": the dead people and cows have returned to their side, which is the message brought by the condor and crow: the world has come to their side.

The whole tribe came here, came here,

Vultures bring good luck to the tribe,

The elders are busy sending letters, and the elders are busy sending letters.

They came here from all directions of the mountain,

The cow came to the edge, came to the edge,

Crows bring good luck to the tribe,

The elders are busy sending letters, and the elders are busy sending letters.

On the other hand, there are also some poems that satirize secular affairs, such as: there is a poem about the northwest coastal bragging contest; There are also some lullabies and lullabies that are also very nice. The poems sung in some competitions are also very poetic.

The Aztecs established schools to train poets and singers, and produced several first-rate lyric poets. The famous poet Niza Holko Yotel. But in other tribes, there are few pure lyric poems and few romantic love poems. Some poems evoke love through magic, which is an exception. Most of these poems were published very late, and they were white people's descriptions of the Indians' "call for love", which was purely speculation.

In Indian poetry, there are few labor poems with strong sense of rhythm; It is difficult to find such works as the boat songs of ordinary sailors or the labor songs of black people. What is particularly surprising is that they have no narrative poems. Indians are used to telling stories or legends in prose, and only use the genre and meter of poetry when it is suitable for rhyming expression, so they can't find Indian poems corresponding to European epics, ballads and poetic legends. But there is a simple chronicle song circulating in Renap tribe.

Indian poems vary in length, with only a few words short, and long ritual poems can be read for several days at a time. Gibois has a poem in memory of a hero, which has only two words: one word is the meaning of a soldier, and the other word is the name of the hero. His great achievements have become a household name, so there is no need to mention another word in the poem. In contrast to this two-character poem, the Navajo's Nocturne is a long poem composed of 324 songs arranged in sequence, which needs to be recited for several days and nights.

Every Indian has a gift for poetry. Singing is the most important means for witch doctors to treat diseases. Every tribe member can write poems through dreams or hallucinations and use them to sing when necessary. Many grand ceremonies also encourage people to write poems and tell their true feelings or hallucinations. However, the authors of most poems that are still popular among Indians are unknown, especially the authors of religious poems are anonymous. People think that this kind of poem was written by inspiration from God. However, the lyrics of Niza Holko Yotel and the war songs of the "Lying Cow" tribe mentioned above are all works signed by individuals.

/kloc-The English versions of Indian poems scattered in dozens of works in the 0/9th century are beautiful and add treasures to American literature. The best translated works are written by ethnologists, who combine language knowledge with poetic talent perfectly. The translation of Indian poetry is very difficult, because without the background of ceremony, the meaning of poetry is not easy for modern readers to understand. Therefore, it is generally necessary to add some notes to let readers know the background of poetry creation. The translation of word meaning is sometimes more complicated and difficult. Symbolic words, figures of speech, ancient words, myths and allusions, etc. Commonly used, it is commonplace for Indians, but it is not easy to translate it well.

Indian poetry also has the general characteristics of poetry writing, such as rhythm, format, image, contrast, monotony, change, poetic language, antithesis, homophonic, personification, onomatopoeia and so on, but these characteristics are often difficult to express through literal translation. Indian poetry has no rhythmic stress, nor is it written in iambic or iambic steps. But every type of poetry has a regular rhythm, and sometimes there is an emotional call in the middle of the rhythm; Stress is sometimes misplaced to form certain melody formats. The chanting in Indian songs or religious ceremonies seems irregular at first glance, but after listening for a few hours, you will naturally experience some obvious rhythms, which are closely related to the beat of the drum. This rhythm was formulated after careful consideration.

The meaning of Indian poetry translated into English is often very obscure, not only because of the style of poetry, but also because Indian poetry itself deliberately shows profound mystery and ambiguity, so it is difficult for ordinary people to have the psychological state when Indians listen to poetry. It is not easy to appreciate an Indian poem accurately, but this does not mean that it is impossible to appreciate an excellent translation in modern English. If the translator comments on its source and background properly, it will be more popular with readers.

Second, South American Indian poetry.

There are basically two types of indigenous poems of South American Indians. The first kind is "singing poems", which are repeated rhythmically in content and form around various common themes, accompanied by music, dance or some ritual action. This kind of poem is very popular among illiterate Indians in the South American continent. The second kind is "special poems", which express inner thoughts and feelings. This kind of poetry belongs to the oral literature type, and there was no manuscript at that time. This kind of poem has been found at least twice in the arrogance of Peru, the Incas in South America and Chile and Argentina. The poems preserved now are some fragments collected in their chronicles of16th century and17th century, and some poems recorded according to the folklore circulating in contemporary Indian culture.

South American Indian poetry covers a wide range of functions, themes, forms and structures. Two extreme examples can be cited. A form has only a series of syllables with regular rhythm, but it has no meaning. These shallow poems are considered to have the power to deter monsters; Simple songs of the same nature sometimes have only a few words. For example, the Ruhr people of Chaco tribe have a two-word poem "Into the Valley"; They can repeat such two-character poems all night. The other is a complex collective chanting poem. For example, the Tupinamba people in Brazil have a poem, which is led by someone and then sung by the whole village. In content, such poems are similar to western epics. South American Indians mainly use poetry for religious and magical activities. This is especially true among low-cultural tribes in low-lying areas along the Caribbean and Pacific coasts. But singing poetry is not always used for superstitious activities; The rhythm it uses is not always the monotonous rhythm used in magic or ritual activities. For example, Catio people have their own rhythmic labor songs.

Singing secular poems with different themes at national banquets is a common form of entertainment. These topics include planting, harvesting, hunting, fishing, animals, songbirds and so on. It is said that the Ottomans in Venezuela gather the whole village to form three concentric circles every night all year round, and a leader leads everyone to sing and dance in the center. Songs used by many tribes in tropical forest areas for pure entertainment have occupied an important position in life. The lyrics and rhythms of these songs are not simply repeated to adapt to a certain tune, but close to the level of real poetry. In Brazil, Tenetahara, Tapilape and Karaya all take chorus or solo as their favorite pastimes. Some of these songs are improvised; Although there is no obvious rhyme, the use of similes has reached a high level, forming an important factor in the style of poetry. Among Tuba people, outstanding poetry creation ability has been recognized by the society, and excellent authors enjoy a high reputation. It is said that even if hostile tribes catch him, he will be respected and released.

The people of aroca have made remarkable achievements, and produced their own poems and literature. Although these poems are still dominated by general chanting poems, they have begun to reflect the rhythm of language itself, and poets have begun to consciously use this feature of language to express their thoughts and feelings more effectively. These Indians are enterprising, emphasizing the development of individual talents, especially advocating eloquence. They not only attach importance to public speaking, but also consciously cultivate and educate public speaking. The only duty of Indian poets is to write songs for public assembly ceremonies. These songs lack strict rhythm form and rhythm, but they use a lot of poetic techniques, such as simile, metaphor and word repetition. Arokania songs were written in ancient style in the19th century, and the lyrics themselves are poems. These poems have become the source of some modern Chilean poems. The common themes in aroca's poems are romantic love, sexual relations, war memories, insults and disputes, satire, death and events in daily life, such as robbery, banquets, drunkenness and noise.

Inca poetry is an outstanding literary achievement of Native Americans. Although it has undergone long-term training in language and form, it still maintains its local characteristics and has become an important part of the historical heritage of American Indians. It vividly reproduces the life scenes of Indians in the past. Before the Spanish colonists came to America, there were few Inca poems, but they were enough to glimpse the basic characteristics of these poems. They express extremely sincere human feelings, deeply touching religious ideals and aspirations, whether humorous, melancholy, violent, sonorous or serious, and truly reflect the great Andean culture and the Indian spirit that created them.

Roy and others correctly evaluated the unique poetic features of ancient Inca. Today, about 5 million Andean Indians living in Peru and Bolivia still use this language. The stress of every word in this language falls on the penultimate syllable, and the rhythm is extremely natural. Coupled with the free use of affixes, they can be used to express extremely subtle meanings and feelings. The works written in this exquisite language constitute the main body of Inca literature, including prayers, hymns, long narrative poems, poetic dramas and chanting poems. These works are often recited, performed and sung at grand mass gatherings and passed down from generation to generation. It is not only a treasure house for this nation without words to preserve its myths, legends and historical traditions, but also a proof that the Indian people understand interpersonal relationships and the relationship between man and nature. The following verse is taken from an Inca prayer:

The sun-the moon;

Day-night;

Summer-winter;

Real but not empty

orderly

stand out

The target is in sight.

The gods were exalted,

Imperial scepter,

Guide everything

Come to the party.

Ah! Please listen,

Please accept the following statement,

God's scepter will be lifted forever,

Give me a long life,

Give me health.

Inca poems are mostly poems expressing love, with sad style and full of natural metaphors, and are still the most commonly used poetry form of Gaicha people. In fact, most poems popular in Peru or Bolivia, whether written in Spanish or Quechua, have the characteristics of ancient Inca poems in style and theme. In addition to this kind of poetry, some lines in the modern cha-cha dance drama also have high poetic value. These plays were performed by Highland Indians while celebrating religious festivals in the Roman Catholic Church. The lines of these plays have preserved the truly great poetic tradition in spirit and language.