Ti | rat | pari |
Am | I | living (my life) |
Tiras | ta | kawahat |
You (who) | possess | the skies |
Kira | katu | kari | rarixa |
Ti | rat | pari |
A good free rendering of this was published by Brinton:—[1]
Let us see, is this real,
Let us see, is this real,
Let us see, is this real,
This life I am living?
Ye gods, who dwell everywhere,
Let us see, is this real,
This life I am living?
PAWNEE WAR SONG
He e e e e e e
Yo e yoha eyu eyu eyo
Eru he ee ee ee
A tiras ta kawaha ti rat pari hey
Ero he ee ee ee
Tat | ara | kitawira |
I | in you | entrust my fate |
Hawa | re | ra | wira |
Again | I do | have | on warpath |
He e e e e yo
This is said to be a popular song among the Pawnee and was composed by a man named Tiriraktawirus when upon the warpath alone. Therefore, the following translation by Miss Curtis[2] is not far wrong:—
O great expanse of the blue sky: see me roaming here.
I trust in you, protect me!
Again on the warpath, lonely.
From these texts we see that many of the lines in a verse are filled out by meaningless syllables and even the thought is carried along by abbreviated phrases here and there. The full import of such a verse is not self-evident, but is conveyed by a secondary prose narrative, in which the incidents and