Text identifier: LA16-4 Speaker: Robert Spott Primary documentation: R. H. Robins Edition: R. H. Robins, The Yurok Language (1958), pp. 162-163
Yurok audio:
English translation:
Yurok audio (2002 re-recording by Glenn Moore):
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Te-kwe's koh-chee weet so'n kue 'uuek-soh keech te-gah-tok. Once the owl acted in such a way that his children were starving.
Kwe-see koh-chee 'we-nes-kwe-chook' 'ap ko'-mo'y, 'ue-wo-rue wo-nue-kuek nee-nee ko'-mo'y
kue 'wah-pe-leen kue huuek-soh 'wom-tah. Then once as he came home he heard, around and overhead he heard the happy
children playing.
Kwe-see 'ap he-goo-mue'm kue 'wah-pew, Kues so-nehl k'ee huuek-soh? So he said to his wife, What are the children doing?
'O le'm, Kwe-lekw keech hekw-sue' k'ee k'e-ke'-mow k'ee k'es-'ey-yoh 'wehee-mar. She said, Well, they found your food under your pounding stone.
Kwe-see 'o le-goyhl kue huuek-soh, Cho' nue pe-wahch-key-ye'-mo'w 'o raak. The children had been told, Go and wash your faces in the stream.
Kwe-see te-ma-loh pe-wahch-key-ye'-mehl. And for a long time they washed them.
Kue ne-puy 'ue'-wers ho mer-ner's-kwery 'ue-koo-see pe-mey kue 'we-luehl. Where they had pulled off the salmon skin their mouths were all grease.
Kwe-see noohl pon-tet 'o hlee', noohl weet 'we-lue-lohl 'e-nee mue-lo-nee'
wee-'eeet. Then they took ashes, and they rubbed them on their mouths there.
Noohl keech 'e-mee ne-wee' kue 'ue-pe-mey-yo-mo-nee kue 'we-re-woh. Then no longer did the greasy part of their lips show.
Tue' weet 'ee mehl 'wew we'y kue Te-ge'-muer tue' weesh-tue' nee shoo
noh-sue-no-wohl. And that is why their name is Snowbird, and so they grow like that.
Noohl 'o ge-goo-mue'm kue 'we-nos he-gee' kue te-kwe's: Then the owl's wife spoke to her husband and told the owl:
Ke'l kwe-lekw k'ee soo no-'o-mue-no-wo-nee k'ee 'wes-'o-nah tue' k'ee nee te-get-ko'hl kee
chpee nee 'e'-go-lo-yew. As long as the heavens endure you will just be hooting in the
canyons.
Tue' nee-keech-yue son hoo-re'-mos kue ch'ue'ch-'eesh tue' kee rue-ro-woo'm. All the animals and the birds will be singing.
Tue' ke'l 'o so ko'r nee-mee kee rue-ro-wo'm keet chpee k'e-we-gaa-ney-yoo-chek' k'ee
nee te-get-ko'hl kee shoo he-we-che'm. But you alone will not be able to sing so that you will just make noise
foretelling evil in the canyons (and) so you will live.
Nek kwe-lekw k'ee nee pe-gar-kohl 'wehee-mech kee ko nee chye-guuek'-we-nek'. As for me, I shall sit in front of where people live.
Tue' wee' too' 'we-te-kwe's wee' 'er'-gerp. And thus ends the story of the owl.