Shaking the Pumpkin: Traditional Poetry of the Indian North Americas

by Jerome Rothenberg

In this gathering from many tribes, Jerome Rothenberg, whose TECHNICIANS OF THE A RANGE OF POETRIES FROM AFRICA, AMERICA, ASIA AND OCEANIA has been hailed as “both a deeply useful work book and an unequivocal delight”, reveals the great poetries and cultures what most interest and impresses him – as a later-day American and as a poet. Included here are the complete text of SHAKING THE PUMPKIN sacred curing songs from the Society of Mystic Animals, translated by Rothenberg and Richard Johnny John, a Seneca songmaker; Rothenberg’s working of a Navajo horse-song as an equivalent of an English sound poem; National Tarn’s version of a major section of the never-before-translated pre-Conquest Mayan play, “Rabinal Achi”; the complete text of a “sacred-clown” fertility drama of the Pueblo Indians; picture poems from the Cuna and Chippewa; two sections from Munro Edmonson’s reconstruction of the POPOL VUH as verse; Dennis Tedlock’s “total translation” of a Zuni Spoken narrative; a Book of Events (happenings); poems of the Netsilik Eskimos translated by Edward Field and Armand Schwerner; and selections from Tepehua thought-poems.

Genres: Poetry, Native American, Book Club

475 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Jerome Rothenberg is an internationally known American poet, translator and anthologist who is noted for his work in ethnopoetics and poetry performance.

Reviews

[Courtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

An astonishing collection of Native American poetry. I might choose this book as my "desert island" pick. It certainly makes the list.

My favorite section is devoted to "events". Here are some of the selections:

CRAZY DOG EVENTS
Crow

1. Act like a crazy dog. Wear sashes & other fine clothes, carry a rattle, & dance along the roads singing crazy dog songs after everybody else has gone to bed.

2. Talk crosswise: say the opposite of what you mean & make others say the opposite of what they mean in return.

3. Fight like a fool by rushing up to an enemy & offering to be killed. Dig a hole near an enemy, & when the enemy surrounds it, leap out at them & drive them back.

4. Paint yourself white, mount a white horse, cover its eyes & make it jump down a steep & rocky bank, until both of you are crushed.


VISION EVENT I
Inuit

Go to a lonely place & rub a stone in a circle on a rock for hours & days on end.


VISION EVENT II
Inuit

Let the person who wants a vision hang himself by the neck. When his face turns purple, take him down & have him describe what he’s seen.


VISION EVENT III
Sioux

Go to a mountaintop & cry for a vision.

[Mia · Rating 5 out of 5]

All of these translations are very dubious. Still, the ceremonies, horse-songs, hand games, visions, 'moon eclipse exorcisms' and poems 'to be recited every 8 years while eating unleavened tamles,' & sundry are delicious. To quote the title of one poem: "MAGIC WORDS & MORE MORE MORE MAGIC WORDS."

[W.B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seminal.

[Jules · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the songs and coyote stories the best but the poetry is powerful too.

[Mills College Library]

897 R8461 1972