[In the course of expanding &
revising Technicians of the Sacred, still in progress, my attention
landed on the following – one of the opening poems in the original book – which
had appeared there in a shorter version of my own devising. Nearly fifty years later my new strategy is
to give it in Pliny Earle
Goddard’s full 1909 version (more than twice the length), & I would add even
more, if I ever felt free to do so. The
additional quote from Gertrude Stein, not in the original edition, puts it even
more firmly in place, for now as well
as for then. (J.R.)]
Genesis I
Water went they say. Land was not they say. Water only then,
mountains were not, they say. Stones were not they say. Trees were not they
say. Grass was not they say. Fish were not they say. Deer were not then
they say. Elk were not they say. Grizzlies were not they say. Panthers were not
they say. Wolves were not they say. Bears were not they say. People were washed
away they say. Grizzlies were washed away they say. Panthers were washed away
they say. Deer were washed away they say. Coyotes were not then they say.
Ravens were not they say. Owls were not they say. Buzzards were not they say. Chicken-hawks
were not they say. Robins were not they say. Grouse were not they say. Quails
were not they say. Bluejays were not they say. Ducks were not they say.
Yellow-hammers were not they say. Condors were not they say. Herons were not
they say. Screech-owls were not they say. Woodcocks were not they say.
Woodpeckers were not they say. Then meadowlarks were not they say. Then Sparrow-hawks
were not they say. Then woodpeckers were
not they say. Then seagulls were not they say.
Then pelicans were not they say.
Orioles were not they say. Then
mockingbirds were not they say. Wrens were not they say. Russet-back thrushes, blackbirds were not
they say. Then crows were not they say. Then hummingbirds were not they say.
Then curlews were not they say. Then mockingbirds were not they say. Swallows
were not they say. Sandpipers were not they say. Then foxes were not they say.
Then wildcats were not they say. Then otters were not they say. Then minks were
not they say. Then elks were not they say. Then jack-rabbits, grey squirrels
were not they say. Then ground squirrels were not they say. Then red squirrels
were not they say. Then chipmunks were not they say. Then woodrats were not
they say. Then kangaroo-rats were not they say. Then long-eared mice were not
they say. Then sapsuckers were not they say. Then pigeons were not they say.
Then warblers were not they say. Then geese were not they say. Then cranes were
not they say. Then weasels were not they say. Then wind was not they say. Then
snow was not they say. Then frost was not they say. Then rain was not they say.
Then it didn’t thunder. Then trees were not when it didn’t thunder they say. It didn’t lighten they say. Then clouds were
not they say. Fog was not they say. It didn’t appear they say. Stars were not
they say. It was very dark.
(Cahto [Kato] Indian)
Source: From the complete literal translation in Pliny Earle Goddard, Kato
Texts (University of California Publications in American Archaeology and
Ethnology [Berkeley, 1909]), vol. 5, no. 3: 71–74. After the Kato narrator Bill Ray.
What’s of interest here isn’t the matter
of the myth but the power of repetition & naming (monotony, too) to
establish the presence of a situation in its entirety. This involves the
acceptance (by poet & hearers) of an indefinite extension of narrative
time, & the belief that language (i.e., poetry) can make-things-present by
naming them. The means employed include the obvious pile-up of nouns (until
everything is named) & the use of “they say” repeated for each utterance.
In Cahto (Kato), this last is a quotative [yaєnɪ], made from the root -nɪ-n, “to speak,” & the plural prefix yaє. (Cp. use of Japanese
particle -to; of tzo = “says”
in Mazatec. While yaєnɪ is
undoubtedly less conspicuous in Kato than “they say” in English, it still gives
the sense of a special (narrative or mythic) context. The editor’s use of
Goddard’s literal over his free translation is based on such considerations;
also from a feeling that “they say” plus other repetitions add something
special to the English &/or American tongues. In brief: there’s something
going on here.
Summary & Addenda. (1) Repetition
& monotony are powers to be reckoned with; or, as the lady said to M. Junod
after having heard the tale of Nabandji, the toad-eating girl, “I should never
have thought there could be so much charm in monotony.”
Charm, in the old sense.
(2) “There is the important question of
repetition and is there any such thing. Is there repetition or is there
insistence. I am inclined to believe there is no such thing as repetition. And
really how can there be. … And so let us think seriously of the difference
between repetition and insistence. … It is very like a frog hopping he cannot
ever hop exactly the same distance or the same way of hopping at every hop. A
bird’s singing is perhaps the nearest thing to repetition but if you listen
they too vary their insistence. That is the human expression saying the same
thing and in insisting and we all insist varying the emphasizing. … When I first really realized the inevitable
repetition in human expression that was not repetition but insistence …”
— Gertrude Stein,
“Portraits and Repetition,” in Lectures in America
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