THE ELDERS' TRUTH
Miki Maaso
Yoem Pueblo
12/22/87
transcribed, translated, and annotated by
Felipe S. Molina and Larry Evers
Miki Maaso (MM):
Well, you will speak the truth that
I have spoken to them.
They really will not understand me.
I will tell you. Well, so you will be able to tell them.
Felipe Molina (FM):
Yes
like this says . . .
well, like this we are thinking.
You will say it straight, yes?
The truth, you will say it to them.
Some will understand you
and some will understand pieces but
will not understand it all.
But later this here that you are recording,
all you will say, will be there.
Later I will
put it in the English language
when I give it to them.
They will read it.
Like that, like that says.
They say it will come out good, straight.
MM:
Yes
FM:
You Will just give it straight in the Yoeme language.
Like that you will know it.
MM:
Yes.
Well, children, we,
the ones who are sitting here, we,
three,
the two or three truths, also, like this, also,
you want it.
And your heart,
your five senses, also, like this, also,
you want it, you also want this
truth, the poor inheritance, from somewhere in the past
at that time.
You want the elders' truth.
Your heart is in it.
You walk about with your hearts in it,
and you get up in the morning with your hearts in it,
and you go to bed with your hearts in it.
You suffer everything in it, the cold,
everything,
the hunger, the thirst,
the sleeplessness, drowsiness, you suffer everything in it.
But you want to know this, the two or three truths, the
elders' truth. Somewhere in the past at that time,
we did not even,
we did not even, we did not even know those elders,
and I did not know them.
At least you,
the two or three truths, also here,
many deer singers
arrive here on this land to you.
They walk about here on this land with you.
Some fathers,
over there, from our
Yaqui River, arrive here to you.
Carrying the sacred request they arrive here to you,
come over here.
But knowing this, the poor inheritance,
like this, knowing, they arrive down here to you.
And you also, exactly,
you heard it, the talk
you understood it from them.
But you really wanted to know it.
Over there at my home place
these fathers also came to me, really sought me out
where I was sitting
and where I was walking around.
Really they made the
steps after me,
they sweated for it.
And now the hour of your sacred request is happening, and,
like this is what you said, like this is what you wanted
to hear.
Here in your
village, here where you walk around,
the two or three truths,
you want to know it.
I also, also I, also,
the elders' truth,
where am I going to find the best of
the elders' truth?
But I, also,
To me, this was not told.
Like, the way you are talking now,
like this, nobody said it to me, and like this nobody said
it to me nicely, the two or three truths.
How I could have learned it,
and how I could have known it?
Didn't say it to me,
but I
heard them, at least I heard the sound like you.
But nobody said to me, "sing it like this, and in this way."
Because then the elders' truth
then, in that time, it was cherished.
It was respected, this, that is lying here
where we are sitting,
the carpet was respected.
And the raspers lying here, the two or three lying here,
not just anybody could lay hands on them,
because the elder valued this then.
If someone laid hands on these, already
there would be talk.
Not just anybody could lay hands on it,
walking in from somewhere,
really there would be . . .
If someone picks up our rasper, lays hands on it,
if he is one who does not have the big heart
in the dream world he will see this,
our poor truth here.
Like this it was said,
"no, father,
no, young man,
don't touch this,
that is lying here.
"You might not sleep," would say,
"because this is the enchanted,
enchanted world."
Like this truth sits.
Like this they valued it,
this is the enchanted world.
Not just anyone can handle it.
Like this, the elders said it. Like this,
the ones who walked around on this weeping earth
I did not even know them,
and they did not even teach it to me.
Because they used to talk
to me like this, they used to scare me,
not like now, to you the way I am saying it to you.
Nobody said it to me,
and not even my father,
and moreover not even my older brother,
said it to me like this.
Nobody taught me.
I just, on the blowing wind, I . . .
I caught it
and put it together in my head.
And maybe God says this,
and from the wilderness world,
the enchanted world, and maybe the . . .
maybe that, like that, the enchanted home says, maybe,
maybe, it gave me this,
and then I
I, the wind . . .
What they heard, what they have sung, what they have heard,
what they have heard in the beginning, that truth
stayed in my head and in my five senses.
Like that I knew it.
Not like this,
the way I am saying it
to you, nobody said it to me.
Like this, you should pay attention to it,
do you see? I am sitting here saying it to you.
Beautifully, I am sitting here saying it to you.
But in the past our . . . this was respected.
Really, the elder deer singer did not give cigarettes
to those behind him.
And the second singer did not give cigarettes
to those behind him.
And the last one who sits with us did not give
cigarettes to those behind him.
And the water drummer also, cigarettes were not requested
from him,
and he could not talk to those behind.
And also the elder deer singer could not even talk
to those behind.
He doesn't answer anybody behind, here.
