NUMBER K2 .- WHORF, BENJAMIN LEE a CONTRIBUTION to the STUDY of the AZTEC LANGUAGE. 1928
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NUMBER k2 .- WHORF, BENJAMIN LEE A CONTRIBUTION TO THE STUDY OF THE AZTEC LANGUAGE. 1928 A CONTRIBUTION TO THE STUD? OF THE AZTEC LANGUAGE [A detailed linguistic and literary treatment of the second poem found in D. G. Brinton's compilation, Ancient Náhuatl poetry] Benjamin Lee Whorf (circa 1928) MICROFILM COLLECTION OF MANUSCRIPTS ON MIDDLE AMERICAN CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY No. U2 UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LIBRARY CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 1956 ii TABLB OF CONTENTS Page 1 [Main "body of article] 26 Appendix A. Original Text of the Poem Transcribed into Revised and Regular Spelling — System of B. L. Whorf. 27 Original Astee Text of the Poem vith Spelling as Given in Brinton's "Ancient Náhuatl Poetry." 28 Appendix B. A List of the Most Common Roots in the Aztec Language. Preface to Root-List - Ollgosynthesis. 30-36 [Missing] 37 [Continuation of list] U2 Appendix C. Bibliography. Note: This copy vas found among Whorf family papers hy J. B. Carroll. 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X 3i.-RIB0 3OH0, AS QTOMI SONG, A MKLODY. stir these n him is this: Blossoming gardens I who sing this song have entered many a one, of something Carefree haunts in pleasant places all aglow with dew and sun, vividly thai Where the sweet birds all are trilling, where oomes floating down utmost b? _• ;1 the song something e\ That the silver-throated ooyol birds are strewing all along, somehow or t Crying jcy before the Ever-Preaent Lord; o aya.' o aya i it is to be surpassingly There the very soul and oenter of that music pomes to me - baseless ore Surely not from earthly sources springs suoh golden harmony; imagination Only in the far-off heaven e'er was suoh sweet coyol heard One glimpse Lifting voioe in chorus with the quechol and the zaquan bird, seem to be Where indeed they praise the Over-Present Lord, oayaj oayaJ drawn in frc must hold tl Then I ponder what I've heard - up.' my spirit, soar afar something a1 Till thou oomest forth in glcry where those heavenly regions are - made by the Turn into a rushing wind, my sighs2 and let me on your wings imperfectly Pass beyond into that heaven's depths wherein the Saouan sings, is this eai Paya! oayai that ia kinc vast, high, But when I look into my heart, this the truth that I oan see; associated v There is no sweet bird sings at all - true - yet heavenward there them so fitl must be ends in thit The things the mind of ffod hath wrought, than these my fancies the sense oj greater far, with its pli And if my spirit turns to God I may sometime transoend the bar And enter in and see the wondrous works the heaven's depths afford Bri To gladden heaven's own sweet birds before the Ever-Preaent Lord. before the < Payai oayai' (the Christ; explanatory. How roach longer must I weep on earth through life's deluding play. permissible Knowing well it all must vanish when this breath shall pass away - 0 Thou Ever-Preaent Lord, in Vhy mansion of the skies. Be: Might I yonder sing Thy praises! - fain toward Thee my soul would rise, explain the Rise and look beyond the present, and Thine Sver-BTesence see the trad i tic In all and causing all, O Thou who bringest all to be] obscure the Qayal oayai ways, as o i In order to Listen to my song, O friend, a throbbing drum that flowers entwine - chosen not 1 Let my soothing song of heaven solace you, 0 masters mine; able w) and May it from my heart out-blossoming like a rain of flowers fall represented Till my hymns find grace before Thee, Ever-Present Lord of allJ when I writi Oayai oayai and Maya. ] I also reta: This is the poem, and it hardly sounds like any priestly quioatl for effusion* It is oouohed in charaoteristio Aztec poetical style, which by a - henoi abounds in references to birds and flowers and allusions to natural represented scenery, and seems like the spontaneous utterance of some unknown a or e, v/hej poet whose heart yearned to know what was behind all the beauty of au and eu; < nature that so stirred him, as we know from such poems that it did yeoteneua. j 4. stir these man of old l&exioo. The thing that Beams most to Impress hint is this: great as is the beauty of nature, he has inward visions of something still more beautiful and perfeot. That he can realise so vividly ".hat there o an be something even more beautiful than the utmost bíj;ty of nature means to him that such a beauty, or else something even more posfeot than that vision, must indeed exist somehow or somewhere in the universe, though he does not suppose that it is to be found on the earth. He rejects the view that something surpassingly greater than the beauty of nature might be a mere baseless creation of the fanoy - hie feeble and wholly imitative imagination would have no power to oréate anything of this sort.