Solstice, Oh Summer!
Yellow butterflies,
over the blossoming maiden corn
with pollen-spotted faces chase one another in brilliant clouds.
Blue butterflies,
over the blossoming maiden corn
with pollen-spotted faces chase one another in brilliant clouds.
Over the blossoming corn,
Over the virgin corn,
Wild bees hum!
Wild bees hum!
Over your field of growing corn
all day shall the thundercloud hang.
Over your field of growing beans
all day shall the wakening rain come!
[Aa'shi'wi (Zuni)]
The Sun is not the great god they had in mind,
although the sun also is a god, they have said.
The Moon is not the great god they had in mind,
the god spoken of as of the night,
although the Moon is also a god, they have said.
They had in mind a god ever spoken of as of the night,
the god that comes and lies outstretched in yellow light,
a god that lies in yellow.
The Moon is not the great god they had in mind,
ever spoken of as of the night,
although the Moon is also a god, they have said.
They had in mind a god ever spoken of as of the night,
the god that comes and lies outstretched in pale light,
that lies outstretched in pale light.
That also is a god, they have said.
It is a god ever spoken of as of the night,
not that great god, the Sun, they had in mind,
But the god that comes and lies outstretched in crimson.
For that is also a god, they have said.
They had in mind that great god, the Sun,
That is also a god, they have said.
They had in mind the god that appears in deep red
and sits on the horizon.
For that also is a god, they have said.
They had in mind the god that lies stretched out in the blue,
whose border is like that of a flower.
It is not the afterglow of the evening they had in mind,
but a god ever spoken of as of the night,
a god who comes and lies outstretched in blue-black light.
Truly, here lies a new shrine, they cried,
A new shrine wherein the sacred emblem shall lie unharmed, they cried.
[Wazhazhe (Osage)]
Sources: I, the Song: Classical Poetry of Native North America (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1999); images blatantly stolen and digitally altered beyond recognition.
8:32:13 PM 
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