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
>>
>>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Nahuatl mailing list
> Nahuatl at lists.famsi.org
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>



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