I will Teach you Cree

[A Former User]

with the tip of my spring tongue, ayîki ( frog)

your mouth will be the web

catching apihkêsis words, (spider)

a crawling-out ceremony

that cannot be translated.

hâw, pîkiskwê! ( Now, speak!)

I’ll teach you Cree, nêhiyawêwin (the Cree language )

that is the taste

of pimiy êkwa saskarômina ( fat berries)

Your mouth will be the branches

I am picking clean,

a summer heat ceremony

that cannot be translated.

hâw, pîkiskwê! ( Now, speak!)

I’ll teach you Cree

in the winter, pipon ( winter)

when the dogs curl against our backs.

Your mouth will be pawâcakinâsis-pîsim ( the frost exploding moon)

that cannot be translated.

It will be a ceremony.

hâw, pîkiskwê! ( Now, speak!)

I’ll teach you Cree

ê-kohk mistahi ê-sâkihitan. (because I love you a lot)

It will be in the fall, this ceremony.

You will have the mouth of a beaver,

thick and luminescent.

I will make my camp there

ê-kohk mistahi ê-sâkihitan. ( because I love you a lot)

This cannot be translated.

hâw, pîkiskwê! (Now, speak!)

[Lazz]

@Cosmic_Lady This is stunning. Would enjoy hearing the words spoken.

[A Former User]

@Lazz It really is a nonwriten language in the sense of word till the past 40 yrs or so like Pinyin is to the Chinese so is most of the native peoples have had to mesh the written to sound as close to the spoken

[Scottish]

@Cosmic_Lady i didn't understand all of that but it still moved me, a song sung in an alien language can still touch your soul

[A Former User]

@Scottish did put the english words in brackets if it helps any

[Lazz]

@Cosmic_Lady Any chance you'd be able to record those words, and post the audio, here?

[A Former User]

@Lazz the savvier I get about this place I will

[Scottish]

@Cosmic_Lady yeah, it was glorious as your posts always are. Incidentally, I'm from a hippie/traveller background and one of my oldest friends (30 years and counting) his wife is called Cree, they've been together for 20 years now, they're farmers, have a big happy family. I've been close to Tom since 1990 and i can't recall a time he wasn't smiling, that childhood joy we had, it's never left him. His sister is one of my great lifelong friends too, they're absolutely lovely people. You just made me think of them. I think I'll go down and help them with the harvest, it's always good, everyone volunteers and we have beers and a barbecue in the evening, life is sweet

[A Former User]

@Scottish that's great , love that I sparked a memory

[Lazz]

@Cosmic_Lady If you can make a recording, I can help guide you how to post it, here. If you're willing, of course.

[Scottish]

@Cosmic_Lady always welcome ✌🤘

[A Former User]

@Cosmic_Lady my spouse is not cree but carrier they have their own dictionary that was recently published