Weweni

by Margaret Noodin

Depending on dialect, the Anishinaabemowin word "weweni" expresses thanks, exactitude, ease, and sincerity. In addition, the word for "relatives" is "nindenwemaaganag": those whose "enewewe," or voices, sound familiar. In Weweni, poet Margaret Noodin brings all of these meanings to bear in a unique bilingual collection. Noodin's warm and perceptive poems were written first in the Modern Anishinaabemowin double-vowel orthography and appear translated on facing pages in English.

From planetary tracking to political contrasts, stories of ghosts, and messages of trees, the poems in Weweni use many images to speak to the interconnectedness of relationships, moments of difficulty and joy, and dreams and cautions for the future. As poems move from Anishinaabemowin to English, the challenge of translation offers multiple levels of meaning―English meanings found in Anishinaabe words long as rivers and knotted like nets, English approximations that bend the dominant language in new directions, and sets of signs and ideas unable to move from one language to another. In addition to the individual dialogues played out beween Noodin's poems, the collection as a whole demonstrates a fruitful and respectful dialogue between languages and cultures.

Noodin's poems will be proof to students and speakers of Anishinaabemowin that the language can be a vital space for modern expression and, for those new to the language, a lyric invitation to further exploration. Anyone interested in poetry or linguistics will enjoy this one-of-a-kind volume.

Genres: Poetry, Indigenous

98 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2015

About the author

Margaret Noodin (previously Margeret Noori, born 1965) is an American poet and Anishinaabemowin language teacher. She is an Assistant Professor of English and American Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Keith Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was fortunate enough to be at the launch of this book in Detroit back in 2015. Noodin read and then sang several of these poems with a group of native women and girls. They sang the Anishinaabewomin versions, of course, but they were deeply moving. And I found it equally moving to finally come to a deep read of the English (with occasional efforts to pronounce the original words).

The poems are a good reminder that ideas that are completely contemporary can be imagined in a traditional language (and it struck me odd that as much reading as I've done in Native American Lit I still have to be reminded). But also that there are a certain level of words that have a different weight, a different valence, in an Anishinaabe context. The context of community.

Here are a few lines that are completely contemporary in the world of English language poetry, yet take on a different weight when we read them as translations from a contemporary poem written in a traditional language:

When the blanket of snow is removed
when crows dance beneath the trees
when visitors arrive among the branches
I offer them sweet water
the sap of their dreams
rivers of spring overflowing.

[Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Giniijaanisinaanig wawezhi'aangwaa
ashamangwaa ashki-enendamowinan
mii ganbaj gaawiin waa miigaadisiiwaad.

-Gimiizhaanaanig

Not all languages are created equal.

The majority of those fluent in a European tongue had it beaten into them. Beaten by money, beaten by power, beaten with rods and whips and electric chairs. Twenty-four "working" out of a 6,500 and then some world, a phrase that renders those thousands of others, what. Lazy? A stop gap? Mandarin Chinese rules the roots by sheer numerical force, but it's the translation of white people I'm concerned with, where on US territory ABC means more than Latin roots and US citizens are slaughtered for not speaking English. When the now dictates that to know a language means a measure of love for learning and nothing at all of fear of future deprivation or lust for future conquest, I'll be content in knowing that the people who speak Anishinaabemowin and its 6,476 and then some non-working kin do so in peace. Until then, refusing to read translations is simply following the status quo of a hegemony.

I took longer with this than I usually do with poetry because of its nifty introduction. Some of the pronunciations have multiple possibilities and I wasn't quite sure when it came to various juxtapositions in the multiple tongues both working and non, but I had enough to slowly but surely move more fluidly through the untranslated left side of the double page span as the days progressed. I don't have a head for languages at all, so what I got instead of word to word equations and guesses at grammar was an ease in pronunciation and trickles of memory from previous encounters with German, Japanese, and music which sampled from what I'm guessing were indigenous languages, although I'd have to make excessive use of Google to confirm that last one. Readers don't have to do the same, but I do have to say, in light of the context of language and the brevity of this particular circumstances of pages, it would be for the best.

I believe the term for this particular breeding would be "niche", translation compounded upon woman of color compounded upon poetry compounded on the next time I come across something in Anishinaabemowin may be a long way off. But hey. This edition's quote of Emma Goldman, for those in the know, is an extraterritorial inclusion that hits closer to home than what English is capable of on its own.

Our decorated children
nourished on new ideas
possibly able to avoid old battlefields.

-We Give Them

[Nathaniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Maamawimaajaamigad ina
Anishinaabemowin
miinawaa nesewin?

Enya...gemaa...wanitooyangoba
apii gaawiin noondansiiwang gichigaming
miinawaa waamdamang bizhishigwaag jiibegamigan.”

//

“Do they leave togehter
the language and
the last breath?

Yes...maybe yes...it will be lost
when we no longer hear the open waters
and we see our graves are empty.”

(from “Gichigaming Oniijaanisag Onjibaawag” / “Children of the Waters”)

[Regine · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting step, not yet as accomplished as “What the Chickadee Knows.” Noodin calls the English versions lyrical explanations of the originals. Some succeed for me as poetry, but many don’t. Still, though, worthwhile.

[Margaryta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recently, poetry has fallen victim to a slew of misconceptions and stereotypes. Many still avoid it, believing it to be written in a way that purposely confuses the reader, while others are worried of finding the same repetition of themes and images. Noodin’s “Weweni” puts to ease both of these worries in a stunning collection that not only presents an original set of poems but, more significantly, acts as a learning experience for the reader by introducing the complex and sadly overlooked culture of the Anishinaabe people.

I have had no previous experience with reading poetry about or by First Nations peoples, and coming across “Weweni” felt an instant fascination with the topic. I was delighted not only to find out that the collection was bilingual, but to also be eased into it with an informative and not very heavy preface. A significant portion of the fun came from trying to read the original Anishinaabemowin versions of the poetry, sounding them out using some of the pointers given in the preface. It allowed for a much more personal and deeper appreciation of the language and culture, one I knew nothing about and which isn’t discussed much either.

The translated versions of the poems left a warm and uplifting feeling after reading them, offering a starkly different atmosphere of forests, stars, and berries that felt so different to the European and contemporary North American poetry. There was a certain honesty to it, a balance of innocence and wisdom, that’s impossible to describe without having read some of them. One shouldn’t be fooled by their apparent simplicity. The collection leaves room for thought and meditation, offering a glimpse into the very tip of a complex culture. I wish there were more poetry collections like this.

[Amanda Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an excellent use of language. Intense and beautiful, these poems are exquisite.

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Favorites:
- The Promisers
- Woodland Liberty
- Sweet Water
- Concerning Distance
- Sun and Moon
- Aloha - Aaniin
- I Am Undefeated

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful poetry, with Anishinaabemowin (the language of the Odawa, Potawatomi, and Ojibwe peoples) and English translations told side-by-side.

"Can we ever learn
to swallow
lava?

Can we ever learn
to hold
the waves?"