Translation Assistance for Nahua-inspired Lullaby
Campbell, R. Joe
campbel at indiana.edu
Tue Oct 12 05:10:23 UTC 2010
Cindy,
Michael has already offered the answer with his "pochotl" and "ahuehuetl"
(note lack of vowel length).
Dibble and Anderson did not include "juniper" as a translation for
"ahuehuetl" anywhere in the Florentine Codex, but "pochotl" and
"ahuehuetl" have a high rate of co-occurrence, mainly due to their
partnership in a "difrasismo", with the meaning of 'refuge'.
Louise C. Schoenhaus, in her _A Spanish-English Glossary of Mexican
Flora and Fauna_ (published by the Summer Institute of Linguistics),
says:
juniper (Juniperus spp., e.g., J. monticola) cedro blanco, cedro,
cipre's, enhebro, junipero, ta'scate, tlaxcal (page 185)
...so since "ahuehuetl" is a cypress (as Michael said), the circle is
closed... or is it a triangle?
Iztayomeh,
Joe
Quoting Michael McCafferty <mmccaffe at indiana.edu>:
> Quoting Cindy Williams Gutierrez <cindy at grito-poetry.com>:
>
>>
>>
>> Dear Nahuatl Enthusiasts:
>>
>>
>>
>> Can someone kindly help with a translation of the following lines (or
>> point me to a resource for translation):
>>
>>
>>
>> * "Sleep, small one"
>> * "Let me be the cottonwood, the juniper"
>
>
> I'm a sucker, perhaps a buffalo fish, so I'll take the bait.
>
>>
>
>
> "Xicochi, conetzin,
> Xinechchihuacan in pochotl, in X..."
>
>
> X means I don't have "juniper" in my Nahuatl vocabulary, or so I think.
> I have it in Navajo, French, and Miami-Illinois, but not in Nahuatl.
>
> Could I interest you in fir, pine, or cypress?
>
> oyametl 'fir', ocotl 'pine', ahuehuetl 'cypress'
>
> :-)
>
> Hopefully, someone else can supply the juniper.
>
> Michael
>
>
>>
>>
>> I'm working on a Nahua-inspired lullaby poem.
>>
>>
>>
>> Thank you kindly,
>>
>> Cindy WG
>>
>>
>
>
>
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>
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