Forrest Carter > Quotes

“You cannot know where your people are going if you don't know where your people have been.”
― Forrest Carter, The Education of Little Tree

“It is good that a man's enemies want him dead, for it proves he has lived a life of worth.”
― Forrest Carter, The Outlaw Josey Wales

“Everything growing wild is a hundred times stronger than tame things.”
― Forrest Carter, The Education of Little Tree

“Indian believes they ain't but two sins... bein a coward... and turnin agin yer own kind.”
― Forrest Carter, The Outlaw Josey Wales

“Granpa said if there was less words, there wouldn't be as much trouble in the world. He said privately to me that there was always some damn fool making up a word that served no purpose except to cause trouble.”
― Forrest Carter, The Education of Little Tree

“He loves deep... hates hard, ever'thing's that killed what he loves. All great warriors are sich men.”
― Forrest Carter, The Outlaw Josey Wales

“Granma said when you come on something good, first thing to do is share it with whoever you can find; that way, the good spreads out where no telling it will go. Which is right.”
― Forrest Carter, The Education of Little Tree

“Granma said everybody has two minds. One of the minds has to do with the necessaries for body living. You had to use it to figure out how to get shelter and eating and such like for the body... She said we had to have that mind so as we could carry on. But she said we had another mind that had nothing atall to do with such. She said it was the spirit mind.

Granma said if you used the body-living mind to think greedy or mean; if you was always cuttin' at folks with it and figuring how to material profit off'n them ... then you would shrink up your spirit mind to a size no bigger 'n a hickor'nut.

Granma said that when your body died, the body-living mind died with it, and if that's the way you had thought all your life there you was, stuck with a hickor'nut spirit, as the spirit mind was all that lived when everything else died...

Granma said that the spirit mind was like any other muscle. If you used it it got bigger and stronger. She said the only way it could get that way was using it to understand, but you couldn't open the door to it until you quit being greedy and such with your body mind. Then understanding commenced to take up, and the more you tried to understand, the bigger it got.

Natural, she said, understanding and love was the same thing; except folks went at it back'ards too many times, trying to pretend they loved things when they didn't understand them. Which can't be done.

I see right out that I was going to commence trying to understand practical everybody, for I sure didn't want to come up with a hickor'nut spirit.”
― Forrest Carter, The Education of Little Tree

“I felt total bad about it, and empty. Granpa said he knew how I felt, for he was feeling the same way. But Granpa said everything you lost which you had loved give you that feeling. He said the only way round it was not to love anything, which was worse because you would feel empty all the time.”
― Forrest Carter

“Ye see, Little Tree, ain't no way of learning, except by letting ye do. Iff'n I had stopped ye from buying the calf, ye'd have always thought ye'd ought to had it. Iff'n I'd told ye to buy it, ye'd blame me fer the calf dying. Ye'll have to learn as ye go.”
― Forrest Carter, The Education of Little Tree

“Now remember, when things look bad and it looks like you're not gonna make it, then you gotta get mean. I mean plumb, mad-dog mean. 'Cause if you lose your head and you give up then you neither live nor win. That's just the way it is.”
― Forrest Carter, The Outlaw Josey Wales

“And when they would be talking and Granma would say, “Do ye kin me, Wales?” and he would answer, “I kin ye,” it meant, “I understand ye.” To them, love and understanding was the same thing. Granma said you couldn’t love something you didn’t understand; nor could you love people, nor God, if you didn’t understand the people and God. Granpa and Granma had an understanding, and so they had a love. Granma said the understanding run deeper as the years went by, and she reckined it would get beyond anything mortal folks could think upon or explain. And so they called it “kin.” Granpa”
― Forrest Carter, The Education of Little Tree

“Baka je na dno groba prostrla čistu bijelu pamučnu vreću, položila Ringera na nju, i onda ga još pažljivo obmotala njome. Djed je položio jednu debelu dasku na Ringera, da ga rakuni ne bi mogli iskopati. Onda smo zatrpali grob. Psi su stajali oko groba pognutih glava. Znali su da je stari Ringer mrtav, i stara Maud je plakala. Ona i stari Ringer su bili partneri u čuvanju kukuruznog polja.
Djed je skinuo šešir i rekao: „Zbogom, stari Ringer.“ I ja sam rekao: „Zbogom, stari Ringer.“ I onda smo otišli i ostavili starog Ringera pod malim hrastom.
Bilo mi je jako teško zbog toga i osjećao sam se nekako prazan. Djed je rekao da zna kako se osjećam jer se on osjećao isto tako. Čovjek se uvijek tako osjeća kad izgubi nekoga koga je volio, rekao je, a jedini način na koji bi se to moglo izbjeći je čitavog života nikoga ne voljeti. Ali to bi bilo još gore, jer onda bi se čitavog života osjećao praznim.
Pretpostavimo da stari Ringer nije bio tako vjeran pas, rekao je djed, u tom slučaju ne bismo bili toliko ponosni na njega. To bi bio jedan puno gori osjećaj. To je istina.
A kad ja jednom ostarim, i to je djed rekao, sjećat ću se starog Ringera - i rado ću ga se sjećati. Čudna je to stvar, rekao je, ali kad ostariš i sjećaš se onih koje si volio, sjećaš se samo lijepog i dobrog, nikad ružnih stvari. Što je još jedan dokaz da ono što je loše ne igra nikakvu ulogu.”
― Forrest Carter, Malo drvo

“Fall is nature’s grace time; giving you a chance to put things in order, for the dying. And so, when you put things in order, you sort out all you must do … and all you have not done. It is a time for remembering … and regretting, and wishing you had done some things you have not done … and said some things you had not said. I”
― Forrest Carter, The Education of Little Tree

“Granma's name was Bonnie Bee. I knew that when I heard him late at night say, 'I kin ye, Bonnie Bee,' he was saying, 'I love ye,' for the feeling was in the words.”
― Forrest Carter, The Education of Little Tree

“Then sometime there in late March, after the Indian violets had come, we would be gathering on the mountain and the wind, raw and mean, would change for just a second. It would touch your face as soft as a feather. It had an earth smell. You knew springtime was on the way.

The next day, or the next (you would commence to hold your face out for the feel), the soft touch would come again. It would last a little longer and be sweeter and smell stronger.”
― Forrest Carter, The Education of Little Tree

“Baka je rekla da svaki čovjek ima dvije pameti. Jedna ima veze sa svime što je neophodno za život u tijelu. Tu pamet moraš upotrebljavati za smišljanje kako ćeš naći sklonište i hranu i slične stvari koje su potrebne tvom tijelu; ta pamet je na djelu također kad muškarac i žena imaju djecu, i tome slično. Rekla je da tu pamet moramo imati kako bi se život nastavljao. Ali, rekla je i da imamo još jednu pamet koja nije imala nikakve veze sa svim tim stvarima. Duhovnu pamet.
Po bakinom, ako čovjek upotrebljava tjelesnu pamet na pohlepan ili zao način, ako ju upotrebljavaš da bi naškodio drugim ljudima i smislio kako ćeš ih iskoristiti i zaraditi na njima... onda se tvoja duhovna pamet skupi i postane manja od hikori-oraha.
„Kad naše tijelo umre“, rekla je baka, „tjelesna pamet isto umre, a ako smo cijeloga života bili sebični i pohlepni onda nam na kraju ostane samo taj hikori-orah od pameti, jer duhovna pamet je jedino što ostaje kad tijelo umre. I kad se onda ponovo rodimo - a mi se rađamo ponovo“, rekla je baka, „onda moramo živjeti s duhovnom pameću veličine hikori oraha, koja ništa ne zna i ništa ne razumije.
A tad se može dogoditi da se još više skupi, do veličine zrna graška i može potpuno nestati ako tjelesna pamet preuzme svu vlast. Kad se to dogodi, onda si izgubio svoj duh, onda si skroz izgubljen.“
To je uzrok zašto po svijetu hoda toliko mrtvih ljudi. Baka je rekla da ih je sasvim lako prepoznati: oni vide ženu i ne vide ništa osim prljavštine, vide druge ljude i ne vide ništa osim zla; vide drvo i vide samo daske i profit; nikad ljepotu, ni ljubav. Baka je rekla da su takvi ljudi mrtvi i samo se čini da su živi.
„Duhovna pamet je naime kao i svaki drugi mišić“, rekla je baka. „Ako marljivo vježbaš, postaje sve veća i jača.“
„Ali kako se vježba duhovnu pamet?“
„Vrlo jednostavno“, rekla je, „tako što se trudiš razumjeti sve ljude i sva bića i stvari. Ali to možeš samo ako ne upotrebljavaš svoju tjelesnu pamet na pohlepan i pokvaren način. Onda razumijevanje dolazi samo odsebe, i što više se trudiš razumjeti, to veća i veća postaje tvoja duhovna pamet.
Naravno, razumijevanje i ljubav su jedno te isto“, dodala je baka. „Osim kad si ljudi nešto umišljaju; kad tvrde da vole nekoga, koga ne razumiju. Jer to se ne može.”
― Forrest Carter

“Ako ti Indijanac želi nešto pokloniti, on će to učiniti bez velike buke, jednostavno će dar ostaviti negdje gdje zna da ćeš ga pronaći.
Indijanac, objasnio mi je djed, digne ruku i pokaže dlan tako da njegov sugovornik vidi kako on ne nosi oružje. Ta gesta znači „mir“. Djed je to smatrao logičnim, ali bijelim ljudima je to bilo jako smiješno.
Djed mi je rekao da bijeli čovjek svoje miroljubive namjere pokazuje rukovanjem - vjerojatno stoga što se riječima bijelog čovjeka ne smije vjerovati pa prilikom rukovanja jedan drugom protresu ruku da vide je li onaj drugi zaista prijatelj kao što tvrdi ili u rukavu ima skriven nož. Djed se nije rado rukovao. Rekao je da mu se ne sviđa kada mu čovjek pokušava istresti nož iz rukava nakon što se predstavio kao prijatelj. Djed je rukovanje smatrao znakom nepovjerenja i uvredljivim. Što je logično.
Kad bijelci u Americi vide Indijanca, kažu „how!“ i onda se smiju. Djed je rekao da je „how“ tek prije nekoliko stotina godina postala indijanska riječ. „How“ je engleska riječ i znači kako. U ono vrijeme kada su prvi bijelci došli u Ameriku, svaki put kad bi sreli Indijance pitali su: kako si, kako je tvoja obitelj, kako ide, kako ovo, kako ono... Djed je rekao da su Indijanci zato povjerovali da je „how“ omiljena riječ bijelog čovjeka, a Indijanci su uljudan narod, svaki put kad bi sreli bijelog čovjeka rekli bi odmah na početku „how“, a onda bi pustili bijelca da govori.
Kad se ljudi sad tome smiju, rekao je djed, smiju se Indijancu koji pokušava biti uljudan i obziran.”
― Forrest Carter, Malo drvo

“Vozač je rekao djedu koliko koštaju karte i dok je djed vrlo pažljivo prebrojavao novac - jer je svjetlo u autobusu bilo preslabo - vozač se okrenuo prema putnicima, digao desnu ruku i rekao: „How!“ i prasnuo u smijeh, i svi su prasnuli u smijeh. Tada sam se počeo bolje osjećati znajući da su prijateljski nastrojeni i ne zamjeraju nam što nismo imali vozne karte.
Onda smo pošli prema stražnjem dijelu autobusa i tamo sam vidio jednu bolesnu ženu. Oko očiju joj je bilo neprirodno crnilo, a usne su joj bile jarko crvene kao od krvi. Kad smo prošli pokraj nje, stavila je ruku iznad usta i zavrištala: „Wa...huuu!“ Ali sigurno ju je ubrzo prestalo boljeti jer se počela smijati i svi ostali su se smijali. Čovjek koji je sjedio pokraj nje se također smijao i pritom se lupao po nozi. Imao je veliku sjajnu kopču na kravati pa sam znao da su oni bogati i mogu platiti liječnika ako im je potreban.”
― Forrest Carter, Malo drvo

“When the storm is over, the new growth, tiny and light, timid-green, starts edging our on the buses and three limbs. Then Nature brings April rain. It whispers down soft and lonesome, making mists in the hollows and on the trails where you walk under the drippings from hanging branches of trees.

It's a good feeling, exciting--but sad too--in April rain. Granpa said he always got that kind of mixed-up feeling. He said it was exciting because something new was being born and it was sad, because you knowed you can't hold onto it. It will pass too quick.

April wind is soft and warm as a baby's crib. It breathes on the crab apple tree until white blossoms open out, smeared with pink. The smell is sweeter than honeysuckle and brings bees swarming over the blossoms. Mountain laurel with pink-white blooms and purple centers grow everywhere, from the hollows to the top of the mountain, alongside of the dogtooth violet...

Then, when April gets its warmest, all of a sudden the cold hits you. It stays cold for four or five days. This is to make the blackberries bloom and is called "blackberry winter." The blackberries will not bloom without it. That's why some years there are no blackberries. When it ends, that's when the dogwoods bloom out like snowballs over the mountainside in places you never suspicioned they grew: in a pine grove or stand of oak of a sudden there's a big burst of white.”
― Forrest Carter, The Education of Little Tree

“Granpa said he seen that and so he knowed. Granpa said ye had to understand. But most people didn't want to-it was too much trouble-so they used words to cover their own laziness and called other folks "shiftless".”
― Forrest Carter, The Education of Little Tree

“Seemed like you could stretch out your arms on either side and touch the mountains. Straight up they went, dark and feathered with treetops, and left a thin slice of stars above us.

Way off, a mourning dove called, long and throaty, and the mountains picked it up and echoed the sound over and over, carrying it farther and farther away until you wondered how many mountains and hollows that call would travel--and it died away, so far, it was more like a memory than a sound.”
― Forrest Carter, The Education of Little Tree

“It is The Way,” he said softly. “Take only what ye need. When ye take the deer, do not take the best. Take the smaller and the slower and then the deer will grow stronger and always give you meat. Pa-koh, the panther, knows and so must ye.” And”
― Forrest Carter, The Education of Little Tree

“Granma said I had done right, for when you come on something that is good, first thing to do is share it with whoever you can find; that way, the good spreads out to where no telling it will go. Which is right. I”
― Forrest Carter, The Education of Little Tree

“The man in the corner hollered, "Tell it all!”
― Forrest Carter, The Education of Little Tree

“I felt total bad about it, and empty. Granpa said he knew how I felt, for he was feeling the same way. But Granpa said everything you lost which you had loved give you that feeling. He said the only way round it was not to love anything, which was worse because you would feel empty all the time. Granpa”
― Forrest Carter, The Education of Little Tree

“Granpa always said that if you was spoken to, treat such with proper respect and give full attention to what was being said.”
― Forrest Carter, The Education of Little Tree

“Granma said that when your body died, the body-living mind died with it, and if that’s the way you had thought all your life there you was, stuck with a hickor’nut spirit, as the spirit mind was all that lived when everything else died. Then, Granma said, when you was born back—as you was bound to be—then, there you was, born with a hickor’nut spirit mind that had practical no understanding of anything. Then it might shrink up to the size of a pea and could disappear, if the body-living mind took over total. In such case, you lost your spirit complete. That’s how you become dead people. Granma said you could easy spot dead people. She said dead people when they looked at a woman saw nothing but dirty; when they looked at other people they saw nothing but bad; when they looked at a tree they saw nothing but lumber and profit; never beauty. Granma said they was dead people walking around. Granma”
― Forrest Carter, The Education of Little Tree

“Pleme Cherokee više ništa nije posjedovalo. Ali nisu se ukrcali u kola, i zato su nešto uspjeli sačuvati. To se ne može ni vidjeti, ni nositi, ni jesti, ali nešto su sačuvali. Nisu se vozili. Nisu jahali. Hodali su.
Vladini vojnici su jahali ispred njih, pokraj njih, iza njih. Muškarci plemena Cherokee su hodali i gledali ravno pred sebe i nisu gledali ni u zemlju, ni u vojnike. Njihove žene i djeca slijedili su ih i nisu gledali vojnike.
Za njima su tandrkala prazna kola koja nisu služila ničemu. Kola nisu mogla ukrasti dušu plemena Cherokee. Zemlja im je bila ukradena, njihova domovina; ali pleme Cherokee nije dopustilo da im kola ukradu dušu.
Dok su prolazili kroz naselja bijelog čovjeka, ljudi su stajali uz rub puta i gledali ih. U početku su se smijali. Kako su Cherokee glupi, hodaju pješke, a prazna kola tandrču iza njih. Cherokee nisu okrenuli glave na njihov smijeh, i uskoro je smijeh prestao.
Nakon nekog vremena počeli su umirati. Njihova duša nije umrla, niti je izgubila snagu. Umirala su djeca, starci i bolesni. U početku su im vojnici dopuštali da se zaustave sahraniti mrtve. Ali onda ih je sve više i više umiralo - na stotine, na tisuće. Više od jedne trećine plemena Cherokee pomrlo je za vrijeme marŠa. Onda su im vojnici rekli da mrtve smiju sahranjivati svaki treći dan. Jer vojnicima se žurilo, htjeli su što prije obaviti tu stvar sa plemenom Cherokee. Vojnici su rekli da mrtve mogu natovariti u kola; ali Cherokee su ih odbili staviti u kola bijelog čovjeka. Hodali su i nosili svoje mrtve.
Dječak je nosio svoju mrtvu sestricu i noću spavao na zemlji pokraj nje. Ujutro bi je ponovo uzeo u naručje i hodao dalje. Muž je nosio svoju mrtvu ženu. Sinje nosio svoju mrtvu majku, svog oca. Majka je nosila svoju mrtvu bebu. Nosili su ih u naručju. I hodali. I nisu okretali glave; nisu gledali ni vojnike, ni ljude koji su stajali uz rub ceste i promatrali kolonu kako prolazi. Neki od tih ljudi su plakali. Ali Cherokee nisu plakali. Nisu pokazivali svoj plač. Nisu htjeli bijelom čovjeku pokazati svoju dušu; kao što se nisu htjeli ni vozili u kolima.
Taj je marš nazvan „Marš suza“. Ne zato što su Cherokee plakali; jer oni nisu plakali. Ljudi su taj marš nazvali Marš suza jer to zvuči romantično i opisuje tugu onih koji su stajali uz rub ceste i promatrali kolonu. Marš smrti ne zvuči romantično.
Ne može se pisati poezija o ukočenoj mrtvoj bebi u rukama svoje majke, o otvorenim bebinim očima koje bulje u plavo nebo, dok majka hoda.
Ne može se pjevati pjesma o ocu koji na zemlju polaže teret mrtvog tijela svoje žene da bi ležao pokraj njega preko noći i ustao i nosio ga dalje sljedećeg jutra... oca koji kaže svom najstarijem sinu da ponese mrtvo tijelo svog najmlađeg brata. I da ne gleda... ne govori... ne plače... da se ne sjeća planina.
To ne bi bila lijepa pjesma. Zato taj marš zovu "Marš suza".”
― Forrest Carter, Malo drvo

“Borovi su šaptali i vjetar im se pridružio i počeli su pjevati: „Malo Drvo se vratio... Malo Drvo se vratio! Poslušajte našu pjesmu! Malo Drvo je opet s nama! Malo Drvo je došao kući!“
Najprije su tiho pjevušili, pa su pjevali sve glasnije i potok je isto pjevao s njima. Psi su to čuli, prestali su njušiti tlo i stajali naćuljenih ušiju i slušali. Psi su znali; prišli su mi i legli oko mene zadovoljni.
Cijeli taj kratki zimski dan proveo sam ležeći na mom tajnom mjestu.
Moja duša više nije osjećala bol. Bio sam opran od svega pjesmom vjetra i drveća i potoka i ptica, punom ljubavi. Oni nisu razumjeli ni marili kako misli tjelesna pamet, kao što ni ljudi koji misle samo tjelesnom pameću ne razumiju i ne mare za njih. I zato mi nisu govorili o paklu, niti da sam kopile, i nisu uopće govorili o zlu. Oni nisu znali za takve riječi niti što one znače. I nakon nekog vremena, i ja sam ih zaboravio.”
― Forrest Carter, Malo drvo