Language Help Wanted (Updated!!)

This is a peace pole. This particular one is in my field in Spencertown, Columbia County, New York. It says, "May peace prevail on earth," in four languages: English, Hebrew, Tibetan, and Algonquin. Those languages seem appropriate to who I am and where the pole is.

According to the World Peace Prayer Society:

The Peace Pole Project is the official Project of The World Peace Prayer Society. It started in Japan in 1955 by Masahisa Goi, who decided to dedicate his life to spreading the message, “May Peace Prevail on Earth” in response to the bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Peace Poles are handcrafted monuments erected the world over as international symbols of Peace. Their purpose is to spread the message “May Peace Prevail on Earth” in the languages of the world.

Mr. Goi believed that Peace begins in the heart and mind of each individual. As war begins with thoughts of war, Peace begins with thoughts of Peace. The Peace Pole reminds us to keep Peace ever-present in our thoughts. As we learn to honor one another, our environment, plants, animals and all creation on Earth, the vision of global Peace will gradually become a natural way of life, a true culture of Peace.

That is precisely the idea. It makes sense to me. I got the idea a few months ago that I needed an additional peace pole to plant in Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico. The problem, this is the one I need your help on, is languages. English and Spanish make sense to me. That's a no brainer. But I think the other two languages on this particular pole should be Yucatecan Mayan and Nahuatl. I want two of the panels to be indigenous languages that are connected directly to Tulum. Mayan because Tulum is a Mayan part of Mexico. Nahuatl because that language descends from the language used by the Aztecs when they were the masters of most of Mexico.

I didn't think it would be hard to get the phrase "May peace prevail on earth" translated into Yucatecan Mayan and Nahuatl so I could put it on a peace pole, but I was wrong. My efforts to communicate with people who speak these languages have failed. My efforts to solicit help from people who teach these languages have failed. I've wondered about why this is being so challenging. Maybe that's because I'm not sitting in Tulum as I write this or beating the bushes there for a good translation. Maybe it's because the people I've contacted don't really want to help me. Or don't care about the project. Maybe it's because this pole isn't a good idea on some energetic or spiritual level. I have no idea what is causing the problem. I just know that it's being a problem to get the words "May peace prevail on earth" in both Yucatecan Mayan and Nahuatl.

Even when I've made progress, it didn't solve the problem. During my search I received a translation of the phrase into Mayan, "TE YUKSILE YOK KABIL." I was told that this was not literal. OK, fine. But I want to know what it means before I put it on a pole. And I haven't been able to confirm that this phrase is actually an acceptably accurate transmission of the idea. I have nothing in Nahuatl. Except emails to various people that haven't produced results.

Which brings me to this request for help. Dear Readers, I would like your help with this. If you have anyone who can help me with this, please leave a comment or email me. I want to be able to plant the pole in either March or June. But right now, I'm stuck.

Updated (1/30/12), 8:40 am ET: With the help of Stewart at worldpeace.org I have language in Mayan and Nahuatl. In Mayan: JAT K'A RI KIKOTEMAL, K'O CHE NJE' CHUCH QATE' RUWACH'ULEW and
in Nahuatl: Ueye Pakillistie Ipan Tlalitpaktle. So far so good. Now all I need is confirmation that these are accurate AND that the Mayan dialect is correct (Stewart says it's Maya kaqchikel). So now I am well on my way. A special thanks to Stewart. This is just a great beginning.

Oxidation

This old dump truck has been sitting in the woods near my home for a long time. I first saw it about 26 years ago. Back then, I assumed its owner would pick it up and drive it away. Or haul it away if it wouldn’t run and repair it. It was worth something, I thought. But that hasn’t happened. It remains in the very same spot. Unmoved. In repose. Slowly rusting and rotting and deteriorating. Its registration expired in 1980.

When all of us are long gone, this truck may still be sitting in the woods waiting for the archeologists or historians to find it. They will make up elaborate stories about why it’s still there. And how it got there. But the race between oxidation and storytelling, between destruction and preservation is already underway. How long will it be before this truck is wearing a rich, brown coat of flaky rust, and its once shiny red color is just a conjecture? And how long will it be before its tires have disappeared leaving it sitting on its muddy axels? And how long will it be before its interior – its windows have been open for decades – is a smelly pile of rotting debris slowly corroding its already rotting floorboards from the top?

Impermanence, we are taught is a fact. A Gatha: "From interdependent causes, all things arise and fade away, so teaches the perfectly enlightened one." In my mind, it all happens relatively quickly. Lives are too short. Relationships are too short. Things that we love are all too quick to fade and break and end. But this truck reminds me that it also happens slowly. Sometimes excruciatingly slowly. Plastic takes 10,000 years to break down in sea water. How long will it take to reduce this dump truck to its lowest common denominator, to unrecognizable particles?

This Week In The Dream Antilles: Mud Season Edition

Last year there was a fierce Winter. Huge, frequent snowfalls. Extraordinary, aching, persistent cold. And this year, as if finding mercy, Winter has so far been quite mild. A deep snow at the end of October melted quickly. There has been no extended, sub zero cold. And there has been little snow. Yesterday’s foul weather warning was unjustified: the feared storm turned into copious rain. Streams and ponds and lakes are not fully frozen. In short, mud season has arrived early and it may persist.

Mud season turns the world monochromatic. The sun is weak. The sky is overcast and gray. There is no snow cover. Fields and forests and dirt roads are all brown. And so we wait. We make it a practice not to complain. Not to jinx whatever clemency we’ve received. We wonder. Is the future a plunge into growling arctic blizzards, or is it a slow but muddy slog toward the Equinox?

Robert Frost:

Looking For a Sunset Bird in Winter


The west was getting out of gold,
The breath of air had died of cold,
When shoeing home across the white,
I thought I saw a bird alight.

In summer when I passed the place
I had to stop and lift my face;
A bird with an angelic gift
Was singing in it sweet and swift.

No bird was singing in it now.
A single leaf was on a bough,
And that was all there was to see
In going twice around the tree.

From my advantage on a hill
I judged that such a crystal chill
Was only adding frost to snow
As gilt to gold that wouldn't show.

A brush had left a crooked stroke
Of what was either cloud or smoke
From north to south across the blue;
A piercing little star was through.

This Week In The Dream Antilles is usually a weekly digest. Usually, it appears on Friday. Sometimes, like now and for several of the past weeks, it isn't actually a digest of essays posted at The Dream Antilles. For the essays you have to visit The Dream Antilles

Raven Haiku

When there is no moon,
ravens huddle together.
I must be dreaming.



1/26/12

Loose Skin

“Man, I know what you need, sitting out there in that shack in that cotton field.”

I thought he was going to start talking about looking for women. Or liquor. But I was wrong about that. “You need a dog," he said. "That’s what you need, man. A dog. A hound. A man’s best friend.”

“I like dogs, but do you think it’s a good idea? I mean, with all of this going on. Some people are really crazy, upset, and they’re making threats. Talking ugly.”

He shrugged. He looked at the sky. He thought about it. “Come out to the house and have a look. I’ll give you one. I’ve got two pups that are ready to go; three already been taken.”

I went. I am such a sucker. The puppy smells were delicious. And I liked how this one looked, all spotted and brown and white and black and gangly. And feisty. And, of course, the price was right. So I ended up with “Lester,” and I took him home with me.

"Lester" could have been named for Lester Young, because of his melodious bark, but no, he was named for Lester Maddox, a huge segregationist, because he was a dog. Just like his namesake.

A few weeks later, the landlord, Mr. Tony, showed up with his stogie clenched in his mouth to collect the month’s rent, $30.00. No, the decimal point is not misplaced here. That's how it was. “So you got a new dog, hunh?” he said. He immediately bent over and unceremoniously picked Lester up by the scruff of his neck. The pup squealed sharply. Mr. Tony put him down. “This dog isn’t worth nothing,” he announced. “Not going to amount to nothing. Skin’s not loose enough. Got to be able to lift a coon dog by the neck. Good dog don’t mind that. Not at all... And there’s no need to look at me like that. It didn’t hurt.”

Derek Walcott

Today is Derek Walcott's birthday. He was born in Castries, Saint Lucia in 1930.

In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech in 1992, he said:

For every poet it is always morning in the world. History a forgotten, insomniac night; History and elemental awe are always our early beginning, because the fate of poetry is to fall in love with the world, in spite of History.

Falling in love with the world in spite of history. A wonderful thought to carry into this week.

Why Town Court Should Be Abolished In New York (Parts 1 and 2)

I could post a long argument with footnotes about why Town Court should be abolished in New York. These courts, formerly called "Justice Courts," are a vestige of 18th and 19th century rural America, and they just don't measure up to what most people now think is just. Their judges don't have to be lawyers (more than 70% aren't) and there is no education requirement for the job. The training non-lawyer judges receive is grotesquely inadequate to make important decisions. And the rulings these judges make can have enormous significance to the people who appear before them. Just take a look at these brief videos:

Why Town Court In New York Should Be Abolished
by: davidseth

Why Town Court Should Be Abolished In New York, Part 2
by: davidseth

I'm just a beginner with this technology. I've now made two short videos. I think they make the point: Town Court should be abolished in New York. I'm just pointing out the reasons.