A Rough Chester Pepper Translation

As part of my work on dramatizing "Coyote Hunts the Sun," I've been trying to expose myself to every version of that story I can lay my hands on. I found a recording that Bill Bright made of Chester Pepper telling it - interestingly, it's a different version than the one Bright translated for his Dictionary. That they were different was all I could tell just listening to it, so I sat down with the cassette in my tape recorder, a Word document open on my laptop, and both Karuk dictionaries open on my lap. I worked through it line by line, trying to tell what Chester was saying and then rendering it into English so I could tell what was going on. Here is my very rough translation (the numbers on the first section correspond to the time marker on my tape recorder):

56.              Pihnêefich úum ‘ukúphaanik.

Coyote       it      he-did-anciently.

Coyote did it.

57.              Vúra          ‘xúti             pa  kúusrah u’ahoo     thírav.

(emphatic) He-thinking the sun         he-walks  to trail [like a deer]

He thinks, “I’ll trail the sun where he walks!”

 

58.              Ma’     pa  ta                súpaah tur                (váa tur     pa  vásih)

Uphill the (perfective) day      pack [wood] (he   pack the back)

Uphill the day packs wood, he packs it on his back.

59.              Kumâam                    vúra            hôoy   poo’aramsîiprivtih (tur     vásih)

It-a-little-ways-uphill (emphatic) where no-comes-from       (pack back)

But it doesn’t come from a little ways uphill, where it’s packing! 

60.              Xas   xuti

Then thinks

Then he thinks

Kíri     váa kari uum

I-wish he   still  arrive

“I wish he’d still arrive.”

61.       Pukára   kúusrah úuyroov                 ánsim

            Nobody sun         mountain-upriver  go-to-bed

            Nobody was the sun so he went to sleep in the upriver mountains

62.       Ta               mukfúukraa

            (perfective) his-climbing-up-from-downhill

            He climbs up the hill.

            Vúra          kaan úum maruk fúku

            (emphatic) there he    uphill  climbs

            He climbs uphill there.

63.       Yee  yáxa sáruk       kari vásih pa   kus’

            Well look downhill still  back  the sun

            Well look downhill: it’s still the sun’s back.

            Pa   kum   pa’ahoo

            The some the-walk

            He travels on. 

64.       Koovúra váa kaan  uum

            All          he   there arrive

            He arrives there.

            Kumisha   xas   ta                 vásih pa  kus’

            It’s-water  then (perfective)  back  the sun

            It’s water and he still sees the sun’s back.

65.       Nu vêen vura           vêetshiip             tu                páapvuuy tu                xuti     nu amvaan mûuk   aramsîiprivtih

            We pray (emphatic) start-to-attack    (perfective) the-tail     (perfective) thinks we eater     with      starting-out

            We pray that the tail we think to catch and eat will start out!

66.       Vura           vaa pihnêefich ukúpanik.              That’s all. Vaa vura           kich.

            (Emphatic) he   coyote        he-did-anciently. That’s all.  It’s (emphatic) over.

            Coyote did it. That’s all.

1.         Coyote did it.

2.         He thinks, “I’ll trail the sun where he walks!”

3.         The day packs uphill: he packs it on his back.

4.         But it’s not just a little ways up the hill, where he’s packing!

5.         Then he thinks,

6.         “I wish he’d still arrive.”

7.         Nobody there on the mountain upriver was the sun so he went to sleep.

8.         He climbs up the hill.

9.         He climbs up the hill there.

10.       Well look downhill: it’s still the sun’s back.

11.       He travels on.

12.       He arrives there.

13.       He’s at water and still he sees the sun’s back.

14.       We pray that the tail we think to catch and eat will start out!

15.       Coyote did it. That’s all.