In the Trail of the Wind: American Indian Poems and Ritual Orations

Bierhorst, John (Editor)

ISBN 10: 0374435766 / ISBN 13: 9780374435769

Published by Sunburst / Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1987

About this Item

Wrappers. Green and white rear cover and spine, green and white front cover with color artwork are all clean and glossy. Book has very light rubbing at the head and tail of the spine and all around the outside edges of the covers. Very light rubbing in a few places along the outside edges of the spine. Binding is straight and tight. Pages are all clean, white, and crisp. 200 pages. Illustrations here and there throughout.

Seller Inventory # 008963

Bibliographic Details

• Title: In the Trail of the Wind: American Indian Poems and Ritual Orations
• Publisher: Sunburst / Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York
• Publication Date: 1987
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0374435766
• ISBN 13: 9780374435769
• Binding: Trade Paperback
• Edition: First Printing Thus.
• Condition: VG+
• Seller catalogs:
  • Poetry

About this title

Synopsis

An ALA Notable Book

A story--and history--reaching back thousands of years unfolds in this diverse and unusual collection of Native American poetry, which gathers dozens of works that have been translated from over forty languages. Representing all the best-known Indian peoples of North and South America, In the Trail of the Wind is a cross-cultural anthology--the first of its kind--that brings into focus the similarities between tribes as widely separated as the Sioux and the Aztec, the Cherokee and the ancient Maya.

Here we find an array of omens, battle songs, orations, love lyrics, prayers, dreams, and mysteries incantations. Beginning with the origin of the earth and the emergence of humanity, the sequence of poems proceeds through that rituals of birth, love, war, and death to the foreshadowing of the Conquest, the days of despair, and, finally, the apocalyptic visions of a new life.

Editor John Bierhorst also offers a detailed Introduction; a richly thorough Notes section on the translators, meanings, contexts, and specific references of these poems; and a complete Glossary of Tribes, Cultures, and Languages. In the Trail of the Wind concludes with a Suggestions for Further Reading page.

About the Author

Other books edited by John Bierhorst include Four Masterworks of American Indian Literature, Cantares Mexicanos: Songs of the Aztecs, and Lightning Inside You and Other Native American Riddles.