Passages of interest from "Brave Ag. the Enemy"

[Clive Bloomfield]

1)  (a) Ann NOLAN CLARK's English Original, 1944. [Page 18]

[Young Lakhota boy Louie says to his Dad, Joe :]

Louie : "Father do you see how level his back is from his shoulders  
to his tail?"

Joe :      "He has everything, alright. There is a bull to sire a  
herd!"]


      (b) Emil AFRAID-OF-HAWK's translation [Page 19] :

L : "Ate wanyanki yetho, hinyete kin hetan na sinte kin hehan  
iyagleya chuwi kin lila blaska yelo!"

J. : "Taku oyas'in iyojula thanchan kithun welo. Thabloka kin le etan  
optaye washte wan ichagapi okihi hecha yelo!"


     (c) Back-translation from Lakhota, aimed at ascertaining its  
literal meaning, and structure.

L : "Won't you just take a look, dad! (lit. please look!) From his  
shoulder [hinyete kin hetan] all the way down to his tail [sinte
         kin hehan iyagleya], his back is so (lit. very) level!"

J. : "He has the perfect body/his body's got the lot, that's a fact  
[yelo]."

         (lit. "He's sure grown/possesses a body [thanchankithun]  
full of [iyojula] everything!" [taku oyas'in] (i.e. everything
                  desirable in a prize stud-bull, presumably)  "]

         "From such a bull as this, you/one might breed a great herd  
(OR 'a great herd might be bred')!"

          (lit. "This is the type [hecha] of bull [thabloka kin le]  
from which [etan] it is possible [okihi] a fine herd might be bred
          [ichagapi].")

[NOTES:] Buech.-M. supplies a verb (stative?) thanchaNthon : 'to have  
a body/to be ripe or full-grown'.
Could the above form in the text, (despite thanchan & kithon being  
written separately), perhaps be an unlisted Dative-Possessive (-ki-)  
of that verb?

Questions. :

Is thabloka kin le the subject of hecha, but NOT of okihi as I take  
it to be, and therefore does postposition etan here have a indirect  
relative sense "from which"?

If it IS a relative clause with definite antecedent, mightn't one  
have expected 'wan' with antecedent 'thabloka' and a 'kin' after  
'okihi'? Like so :

"le thabloka wan etan optaye washte wan ichagapi okihi kin hecha yelo!"
[=Here is a bull, one of the sort from which it is possible a fine  
herd may spring!]

Or, if 'etan' directly governs 'thabloka kin le', as it appears to  
do, prima facie,  can 'this bull' simultaneously be the subject of  
'hecha', as well as in regimen with the postposition?

Does 'okihi' have an impersonal sense here, hence lack of animate- 
pluralizing '-pi'?


2.) (a) Ann NOLAN CLARK's Original [Page 18]

"Why is it," she thought, "that Indians never have what they want  
most? Here is my man who worked for forty years building a herd and  
had to see it dwindle and die in as many months. What has he now? He  
has nothing. Not even the hides and the bones are left from a herd of  
a thousand head!"]

      (b) Emil AFRAID-OF-HAWK's Translation [Page 19] :

"Tokheshkhe" echin, "Lakhota kin taku wanji aiyotanh^ci chinpi khesh  
t'inza yuhapi kta okihipi shni? Le wichasha mithawa kin waniyetu  
wikcemna top ptegleshka optaye wan wichayuichagin kte h^cin, na lila  
wowashi echun, na wanwichaglagye h^ci sanp conala ayapi, na  
tonakecapi kin he wiyawapi kin waniyetu yamni ihunniyan sotapi.
Na anpetu kin lehanyan taku yuha he? Takuni h^ci yuha shni.  
Ptegleshka opawinge wikcemna wanji wicayuha tkha k'un etanhan tahalo  
nahuhu e kayesh yuha shni," echin najin he."


      (c) A back-translation from the Lakota :

"How come/How is it?" she thought, "that the Lakhota, although they  
desire a thing above all else [aiyotanh^ci], are (nevertheless)  
unable to keep a firm hold upon it? This husband of mine has put in  
huge efforts [...kte h^cin] to bulid up a buffalo herd for 40 years,  
and has laboured extremely hard, and (yet) even as he watched over  
them, (his own herd) [wanwichaglagye h^ci] (OR perh. "under their  
owner's very gaze") , they thinned out [sanp conala ayapi], and their  
population/numbers [tonakecapi] dwindled to nothing [sotapi] (during/ 
over/within a period of) months [wiyawapi kin] amounting to/totalling  
[ihunniyan] three years. (i.e. about 40 months).
And what has he got these days [anpetu kin lehanyan]? He owns a big  
fat [h^ci] zero.  Out of a thousand head of cattle that he used to  
[tkha k'un] possess, he hasn't even got their hides & bones," she  
reflected as she stood there.

Toksha akhe, mitakuyepi,

Clive.
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