The legacy of cultural imperialism, the consequences of gender, and the marginalization of the conquered are themes that combine and comment, one on the other, in Rosmarie Waldrop’s remarkable work, A Key into the Language of America. The German-born Waldrop based her collection, published by New Directions on October 1, 1994, on Rhode Island founder Roger Williams’s 1643 guide (of the same name) to Narragansett Indian language and lore.
As Susan Howe writes: "[Roger] Williams’s A Key Into the Language of America was the first extensive vocabulary and study of an Indian language printed in English. Waldrop’s Key is a return and a reinscription. She…intersplices, turns, overturns, plots, weaves and threads, line for line, at least three structural systems…Waldrop’s A Key is a witty, and deeply moving, translation of sexual and textual division and witness."
In honor of the thirtieth anniversary of this seminal book, we are delighted to share the first three chapters of Waldrop's text.
CHAPTER I
SALUTATIONS
Are of two sorts and come immediately before the body. The pronunciation varies according to the point where the tongue makes contact with pumice found in great quantity. This lends credence, but no hand. Not so entirely Narragansett, the roof of the mouth. Position of hand or weapon conventional or volcanic formation.
Asco wequassunnúmmis. Good Morrow.
sing
salubrious
imitation
intimate
I was born in a town on the other side which didn't want me in so many. All streets were long and led. In the center, a single person had no house or friends to allay excessive sorrowe. I, like other girls, forgot my name in the noise of traffic, opening my arms more to measure their extension than to offer embrace.
the Courteous Pagan
barefoot and yes
his name laid down
as dead
one openness
one woman door
so slow in otherwise
so close
CHAPTER II
OF EATING AND ENTERTAINMENT
Indian corne, boiled with free will and predestination is a dish exceeding wholesome if taken through the mouth. Their words, too, fit to eat. And crow. A mark of "cadency." Similarly, an eye devouring its native region must devote special attention to its dialect. Where they have themselves and their wives risen to prepare. Against initiative of elements, against white bodies, against coining of new words: Tobacco. Unsuccessful.
Mishquockuk.
Red Copper Kettle.
cycle
chain
for thought
I began my education by walking along the road in search of the heroic. I did not think to ask the way to the next well. Wilderness like fear a form of drunkenness or acting like a boy. The ground begins to slip. Rhythm of swallows seen from below. It is a strange truth that remains of contentment are yet another obstacle.
the spelling in my mother's recipes
explains
why she gave birth to me
and in the greatest heat
should feed
on me
all flesh considered
as a value
CHAPTER III
CONCERNING SLEEPE AND LODGING
They will sleepe without the doores, above sea-level, with fragments and English translations. The night too long ago for architecture. Rocks shifting in the river-beds, escaping recognition, the vigilance of leaves. When the swelling of a tenor voice is (for want of theology) observed by a procession of closed eyes they wake up young and know they've been.
in
over
out
walk
Later I played under highway bridges to make room for strangers. A smell of concrete and mud, acrid as of sexual transactions. Ripples on puddles. Faintly foetal. On the periphery of more private weather, I tried to adjust to Dutch trumpets and fire instead of bedclothes. This was inevitable if I wanted to learn to imitate consciousness.
the powers of
Wunnakukkússaquaum
pale flesh
You Sleep Much
restored to take imagination
by surprise
out by the roots of dream
an empty
promise
lodged against me
Copyright © 1994 by Rosmarie Waldrop
