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ALCHERINGA
Number Two Ethnopoetics Summe r 197 1
FROM TWO UGARITIC TEXTS
Harris Lenowitz 1
THE "ORIKI" OF ALAJIRE
Susanne Wenger 7
OUT OF THE CANYON near Two Turkey Ruin
Simon Ortiz 18
PELT KID AND HIS GRANDMOTHER
Dennis Tedlock 19
WOLF SONGS & OTHERS OF THE TLINGIT
James Koller 31
PLANTING SONG
Barbara Tedlock 35
THREE SONGS OF MAD COYOTE
Herbert Spinden 36
IN THE BEGINNING: A Tale from the Mazatec
Robert Laughlin 37
MASSE T MOURNING SONGS
Dell Hymes 53
PRAISES OF OGUN
Jerome Rothenberg 64
PRIMITIVE: The Critical Term
Stanley Diamond 66
LETTERS: "Minimal Translation"
Robert Kelly 71
A MAP OF THE DREAM-TIME
Mervyn Meggitt 73
RABINAL-ACHI: Part IV
Nathaniel Tarn 74
THE TENTH & THIR TEENTH HORSE -SONGS OF FRANK MITCHELL
Jerome Rothenberg 94 & record insert following 96
Editors: Jerome Rothenberg & Dennis Tedlock
Contributing Editors: Kofi Awoonor, Ulli Beier, Stanley Diamond,
Dell Hymes, David McAllester, Simon Ortiz, Gary Snyder,
Nathaniel Tarn
ALCHERINGA is published twice a year by Jerome Rothenberg &
Dennis Tedlock, with the aid of a grant from the Coordinating Council
of Literary Magazines. Manuscripts, correspondence, & subscriptions
($5.50 for two years) should be sent to the editors at 600 West l63rdSt.,
New York, N. Y. 10032. Copyright 1971 by Jerome Rothenberg & Dennis
Tedlock. All rights revert to authors immediately upon publication.
Harris Lenowitz's original translations
from Cyrus Gordon's Ugaritic Textbook
(Text 52, lines 30-53, and tnt II, lines
2-41). Ugarit was spoken in Canaan.
FROM TWO UGARITIC TEXTS
I
How Bull E1 cooks some soup up shoots 'a bird out of the sky &
eats it then fucks two women wild with admiration for
Him to· a strange birth
E1 is strolling
along the seashore
down by the Deep.
Down by the sea shore
E1 strolls along the Deep.
E1 builds a fire, and
puts on some soup.
E1 takes a spoonful
Off his fire
Or two.
A girl, lying where E1
could not see her.
"Aha! "
She gets up from the sand
then shrieks
Getting a look at E1
"Fatherofusall !
MaMa! That thing's
long as the Ocean and Rivers I"
Sure enough
That thing of E1's stretches out
like the Ocean and the Rivers.
1
Startled
He takes a couple more spoonfuls
off the fire,
heads back to his hut.
.After a while
Ells thing declines and subsides
He goes back out.
He raises his bow
Sights
Then shoots a bird
Right out of the sky.
He cleans it
and sets it on the coals.
There are now two women.
El wants the women.
They giggle
They call to him:
flO Husband,
Lover,
Whatever happened
to your stick?
II
The bird is roasting
Roasting on the coals.
El thinks
"These two are Ells women
Mine Forever. "
But then
The women shriek:
"Father ofu s all !
Put it down
Put that stick down!"
2
The bird is roasting
Roasting on the coals.
EI is puzzled
"Daughters? Daughters
of EI Forever? "
They shout with laughter
"0 Husband,
Lover,
Your shaft has fallen
Your staff is dragging!"
The bird is still roasting.
"50 the women are
Wives of El
Wives of EI Forever. "
He stoops.
Kisses their lips.
Their lips are sweet
Tart as grapes.
After kissing, fucking
After holding, birth.
They labor and
they bear.
Dawn
and Dusk.
EI hears the news.
He muses
"EI's wives have borne.
Why
They must have borne
Dawn
and Dusk. "
3
II
The Name 'Of Anat, or how the Virgin cut up their armies then
brought the pieces horne but smashed the furniture in
joy-of-the-blood before She washed Herself in rain
The Virgin Anat
Camouflages her divine aura
And puts on
The smell of goats and rabbits
She closes both the doors
Of the Palace of Anat
She catches up to the troops
In the mountain1s slit
In the valley
Between the cities
How she slays them!
She cleaves the Shore folk
She smashes the Western man.
All around her
Heads - -a swarm of locusts
Hands - -like crickets, as many
Soldiers hands as thorns on cactus
I
Anat bundles up her
Prize
She loads up the heads
On her back:
She ties the hands
On her belt.
And, returning from
The valley
Her knees slosh through
The s oldie r s blood,
I
The soldiers flesh
I
Up to her hips.
4
She prods the captives
With the back of her bow.
And Anat comes home
Unsatisfied with her slaughters
In the valley.
She fights on, indoors.
She sets up
Chairs for soldiers
Tables for soldiers
Stools to be soldiers.
How she slays them!
She smites them, then
Stands back
Her liver full of laughter
Her heart filled with joy
Overjoyed
For her knees wade in
Soldiers blood:
1
Soldiers flesh
I
Up to her hips.
When she has finished
Fighting in the house
Lunging between the tables
She is full
And she rubs her hands
In the soldiers blood.
1
She pours the rich oil
Into a basin
And she washes
Her hands
Virgin Anat
Washes
Her fingers
5
The Sister -of-the -Peoples
Washes
He r hands in the blood
Of the soldiers
Her fingers in the gore
Of the soldiers
The chairs are only chairs again
The tables, tables
The footstools, footstools
She pours out water
To wash
In the dew of the heavens
In the oil of the land
The rain from Cloudrider.
The Heavens' dew
Bathes her.
The rain bathes her.
Note: The first piece is from the so-called "Poem of the
Gracious Gods. " It has been described as '!descent into
burlesque, " but might be better viewed as a pure religious
manifestation of El as God of Creation and Trickster. The
second piece is a fragment of the U garitic epic cycle of
Ba'al and Anat. Lenowitz writes, "I want to call this piece
'The Name of Anat' because taken altogether it names her,
or she names herself in it, through her actions and tone of
mind, completely. She is one sort of archetypal virgin. Not
the Virgin Mother, Kore or Mary, but more the warrior
virgin, like Joan of Arc. She will defend her hymen; her
sense of what is right and of what must be done, against all
comers. Like Antigone. She is violent in this defense, and
violent towards her enemies. And she takes great, savage
glee in doing her self-assigned duty. Here she is fighting
for her brother's honor. She is really at war with every
mortal, flawed man. "
6
Yoruba praise poems translated by
Susanne Wenger. Alajire is an ancient
manifestation of the god of suffering.
THE "ORIKI" OF ALAJIRE
Alajire we ask you to be patient
You are very quicktempered
And we worship you for it.
Alajire we ask you to be moderate
You are wildly extravagant
And we pray to you for it.
Alajire we ask you not to be jealous
You are madly jealous
And we love you for it.
He who wants to know what burns hotter than fire
May ask the sun.
The sun will answer with his own fire.
He who wants to know what burns hotter than his love fo·r Alajire
May ask Alajire.
Alajire will answer with his own love.
Alajire you have a strange kind of pity:
Will you swallow my head
While you're licking the tears away from my face?
Alajire have you gone mad?
You swallow heaven and earth
And are still hungry.
You drink rivers and ocean
And are still thirsty.
Come and feed on my love
And you will be satisfied.
7
Alajire you are the wandering madman
Who roams about aimlessly
Who knows no roads and no directions
Yet walks straight into the heart of wisdom.
Alajire,
Your love turns me ins ide out.
Alajire,
When my love is able to turn you inside out
I will have to avert my eyes --
Lest I be blinded by beauty.
Alajire who lives in a child's smile.
When you corne to show me your love,
Be gentle, I am only a child.
There is no wrong way
That could not be the right way
Into the wisdom of Alajire.
Alajire,
I will make you laugh.
The one -legged man is angry with his friend:
He accuses him of giving away his secret
Of telling everybody
That he only has one leg!
Alajire,
I am lost in the forest!
No one can tell me how large it is
But I can see how dense it is.
Alajire,
I will kindle your fire in it.
8