Telluric Voices by obeeduid~

From Onisketau to Nkensittawãn: (I will listen.)

The original poem: "Onisketau", the poem that it became: "Nkensittawãn: (I will listen.)" and the video that is based on the original poem; was the impetuous for what became this cycle. It was the first poem that I wrote that gave me a feeling that this place was saying something to me; that I was now living somewhere that was changing me and my outlook on my world. It spawned my interest and launched me on this journey. 

It was therefore created early on in the process of my research as well. The original spelling "Onisketau" came from maps and seemed to be the earliest authoritative spelling. This was before I found the transcription of the Slingerlands Patent and when I was relying as most do on "Beauchamp's Aboriginal Place Names Of New York State." in various versions (1893 to 1906) and "The Composition of Indian Geographical Names Illustrated from the Algonkin Languages" by J. Hammond Trumbull (1870). 

When I found the transcription of the Slingerlands Patent and it's indication that it was sold by the Ma-quaes [Mohawks] (after they drove the Mahicans out subsequent to their victory over them at the the end of their war with each other in 1628.) and it included the spelling and pronunciation "Onesquethaw" (O-nits-quat-haa) in the "Bi-centennial History of Albany: History of the County of Albany 1609-1886..., Volume 2 By George Rogers Howell, Jonathan Tenney" (1886) I suspected that Beauchamp's translation and meaning of : "Corn Field Creek" based as it seemed to me solely on the similarity to the word for maze was incorrect. 

The difficulty of analyzing early names is greatly increased by the fact that they come to us in corrupt forms. The same name may be found, in early records, written in a dozen different ways, and some three or four of these may admit of as many different translations. 

Beauchamp used many sources and I have as well. I finally arrived at the conclusion that the Slingerlands Patent spelling and attribution were correct when I found on the Internet that a native speaker of Ma-quae [Mohawk] had translated it as 'Sinking-stream'. 

While the area is and has been surrounded by cornfields, and has been used for centuries for such purposes, the geographical features of the stream rise, fall and at times disappear underground. Thus the name 'Sinking-stream' seems from my point of view to be decisive and as close to the true meaning as it is possible to get. I am more familiar with the topography now than I was when I first came to this place. 

The corrected poem as it stands in this cycle is therefore different in it's usage and translation than in the video. To recreate the video at this point armed with this advanced knowledge however seems pointless. 

The video was experimental in it's nature with regards to my use of cinematic techniques available to me at the time. When I first created it I had only just discovered that I was capable of using green screen on my computer. I remember it's creation as being fun and exhilarating. But as I look at it now I wish that I had done some things differently. 

I present them both here for comparison as an interesting contrast only; a comparison of how things change in creation. They stand therefore as a time capsule and an interesting step in the creative process. Someday, with time and more advanced technology I may attempt to create a more definitive version. 

In the cycle, as it is indicated in the table of contents, the original poem "Onisiketau" is now number 9.) "Nkensittawãn: (I will listen.)" and represents the Initiation- "Meeting/Hearing the Goddess." Timeframe: Winter. 

Here then is the videO'em in it's original form:

~


And the poem as it stands now in it's final form:


Nkensittawãn: (I will listen.)


I hear
your voice
calling to me

From my back porch
through the trees
over the distance

Broken by season
severity of temperature
and lack of snowshoes

Onesquethaw
you sing to me
from the cold dark
depths
of your mountains
shadow

Onesquethaw
you call to me
in the full moon
of night

and I long
ache
dream

of you
in the light

of autumn
spring
summer

But can not
imagine you

burbling

in this bitter
angry
wasted land

winter.

~

The poem itself has not changed much. Only the spelling of Onesquethaw (which is the same modern day spelling) and its meaning have altered. For me this not only strengthens it's allure it tells me the from the beginning I have been on the right path! 

obeedúid~ 

05/June/12