The Creation of the Klamath World

THE CREATION OF THE KLAMATH WORLD (Klamath)

Long, long ago Kemush created the world. Morning Star called him from the ashes of the Northern Lights and told him to make the world.

At first Kemush made the earth flat and bare, without plants or animals. Then he made the hills and mountains, the rivers and lakes. He planted grass and camas bulbs and ferns in the valleys. On the hills and mountain slopes he set out pine trees and juni­pers.

Then he sent Mushmush, the white-tail deer, Wan, the red fox, and Ketchketch, the little grey fox, to run through the forest he had created. Up in the mountains he placed Luk, the grizzly

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Imagery in Translation

bear. High on the mountains, on the rocks and snow fields, he placed Koil, the mountain sheep. On Mount Shasta he placed Grey Wolf.

The world was all new except the crescent-shaped rock on lower Klamath Lake. On it was the lodge of Sun and Moon. When Kemush had finished his work, he slept in the lodge of the North Wind, on the high mountain east of Klamath Marsh.

While Kemush was sleeping, the Sun Halo called to him and wakened him. "Let us follow the trail of Shel, the sun," said the Sun Halo.

They followed the sun until they reached the edge of the dark. Then Kemush and his daughter, Evening Sky, went to the Place of the Dark, to the lodges of the spirits. The spirits were as numerous as the leaves on the trees and the stars in the Milky Way. Kemush and Evening Sky danced with the spirits of the dark, in a circle round a fire in a great pit. But when Shel called to the world and morning came, the spirits became dry bones. Ke­mush gathered the dry bones and put them in a sack. Then, as he followed the trail of the sun to the edge of the world, he threw away the dry bones. He threw them on the mountains, in the val­leys, on the seashore.

Some of the dry bones became the people of the Chipmunks. Some became Maisu, the Indians. Some became Maklak, the Kla­math Indians. Thus were people created.

Then Klamath followed the trail of Shel, the sun. At the top of the trail he built his lodge. He still lives in this lodge, with his daughter, Evening Sky. The Klamath call him Old Man of the Ancients.

EXERCISES FOR TRANSLATION-2

• Study the framing formulas of the text and choose Russian substitutes for them. Consider the combination of tenses in the source text from the point of view of its temporal arrangement.

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Практикум по художественному переводу

• Study the system of names in the text and choose appro­
priate techniques to translate them into Russian.

• Consider the role of double naming the heroes, when orig­
inal Indian names are included in the source text, and how to
reconstruct this narrative device in Russian.

• Study the formulas of the sacred and translate them as a
system into Russian.

• Detect what may seem illogical in the text to identify its
linguistic medium and reconstruct it in Russian.

• Note the colloquial stylistic manner of the narrative in
order to create its Russian substitute.

• Translate the text and discuss the result.

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