A Text as a Path. The Mirror Bridge. Ritualizing the Stutter

About the Book

Dani Zelko got to meet the wise tribal leader Caístulo in the Wichí indigenous territory, in the tri-border region between Argentina, Bolivia, and Paraguay. The result of that encounter was A Text as a Path, a transcription of what the mothers orally transmitted to Caístulo. We are now republishing it, together with two new subsequent titles: The Mirror Bridge (El puente espejo) and Ritualizing the Stutter (Ritualizar el tartamudeo).

The uniqueness of Zelko’s method (he visits the villages and drafts books rooted in oral tradition) and the revelatory nature of Caístulo’s voice come together in the creation of a text that reads as chant-poetry, chant-essay, chant-philosophy. In his role as messenger, Caístulo says: “the mothers and fathers I’m telling you about / aren’t called mom and dad / but I don’t know how to call them in your language.” The construction of the text by both creators is also an act of translation, through rhythm, and sound, where the words and the spaces overflow the shared language.

With the tree at their center, these texts speak about animals, but also about all species. They speak about understanding, about the present moment, and humanity’s overwhelming domination over nature and beings and things reduced to “available resources,” as Ailton Krenak points out in Life Is Not Useful.

Rights sold for the French version.

Excerpt 

Do you know there’s a key?

A song, a message, a question

among human beings

and what is called animals

any animal we may find

is the key

we’ll never understand 

which animal we are

How is the dog

we raise at home born?

How does it take care of us?

Animal songs are very beautiful

chanting and singing to help us

when we feel helpless

Why do animals scare us?

What kind of fear could they cause?

Animals don't hold on to the key

they are the ones who offer it

Why do we pick up the puppy?

Why do we love it?

The koala

the animal that hugs

says the key 

is inside the message

and the message

seeks a way out

so that the key

can continue its work.

I communicate with animals

through a mother

through mothers do animals speak

the mother

what you call a tree

is my antenna

I ask her

to help me tell 

those beings who want to know

how to learn.

The mothers

communicate in earthly ways

they walk beneath

the heart of the earth

each message from the mothers

is a blend of thoughts

from all the mothers on earth

it seems far-fetched

but that’s how it is.

The words from the mothers

are what we link

different races

and countries

may have other languages

but they come from the same saliva

that doesn't change

the sharp point of philosophy 

that translates thought

that debates thought

and strengthens 

the words of how to think.

We may share the same language

or have a different one

but each language comes

from the mothers in that territory

language is music

that comes from another music

and another music

and that music

comes from a sound

the sound of the mothers

in each territory

as they have different roots

they speak different languages

they move the winds in a different way.

And the winds unite

and become words and voices

which make human instruments 

sound

as we witness

and present ourselves

as protectors of thoughts

and the earth’s skin 

and of the loved ones

we receive a text as a path

in language we unite.

I bear witness to myself

and present myself

with my language 

as my own language

I let everyone communicate

who my people are

my lineage

my parents, my people, my community 

we have learned to work together

around a language

a way of thinking

a story 

we always speak Wichí

and so we do when we speak to the mothers

this way the request is different 

the relationship is different 

many listen to humans

and few listen to the mothers

it's harder to listen

because the mothers

don't complain

theirs is not the person voice

it doesn't convey helplessness

but wisdom

and the bodily humors of being present. 

I don't have a voice to create messages

I am a singer

I am a messenger

I don't create the message

I deliver it

I sing with the mother

she gives birth to the song

to her own messages

she thinks us

she thinks us

and if she gives us her message

then we can participate

and create the message together

we can’t say we create it

the strength and the presence of the message

comes from the mother

the resilience which is the future

that humans deny 

Oh, I belong to this or that race, I come from this or that country

those are petty thoughts 

we need to tend to each other

so that the crop yields brothers and friends

on earth we are brothers

in heaven we are friends

it's no use being humans but not fellow people

How do I join others?

How do I navigate situations?

Every being that touches their strength

has a voice

becomes a voice.

When I speak of my language

I don’t take over your power

but when you speak of my language

I have to take over your power

and when you take over my words

you learn 

you grow

you discuss

it’s not a problem when we are empowered together

if we do it together, we’re not a burden

we’re here to forge a path

and everything that happens to us as friends

is that even though we don’t share the same language

the message

makes us friends

ears

should sound

to the drums

whether I like this tree trunk or not

it is growing

and so am I

we are inseparable.

It's half a second

there's no puzzle, no anything

it's half a second between the four winds and me

and when you're struggling a bit

you rattle your brain

to listen to them

and to be able to translate

and the winds torture you

and you want to sew your mouth shut

but not in this case

in this case it comes out

because they left us a vast archive

books that answer 

questions that speak of significance

ancestral books that are paperless 

created by the mothers and fathers

and the earth and the winds.

The fathers are the ones who come now and again between seasons 

for example during the rainy season

fathers roam the land

and find the mothers

and they send messages to one another 

it’s like a torch-lit cloud from above

the father comes from the sky

to generate another force

we know nothing about them

they shelter all beings.

In my language

the mothers and fathers I’m telling you about

aren’t called mom and dad

but I don’t know how to call them in your language

let everyone learn it as they hear it

I’ll leave it hanging there

like a question

a question that blows like a gentle breeze on your face.

I doubt the message is just one language

and I doubt the message is just one message

and I doubt I can understand it unless I'm open

it’s because I don’t understand it

they give it to me

and I give it to you

it's in the book of the mothers

not in the book of the humans

Why do we speak out then?

Because we are not unnecessary identities

we are identities in search of one another among brothers

animals embracing one another

we fell into our own hands

and into the hands of the key.

When I say key to me it’s n’äyij

here in Wichí territory there are no doors

there are no doors with keys

there are no important objects here

that’s why there’s no envy

the key is something that is passed on

it’s not an object

the key carries

the key protects

it’s your life that carries you

it’s not that you carry it

it’s not that you have it

your life protects you.

If you get ready 

and walk

and listen

and ask questions

maybe the mothers will give you keys

How do you know 

if you are you

or if you are a message?

Instead of being a messenger 

you could be a key

that desire of yours 

is to understand 

and to enter

and for you to enter 

you must know

how to transform yourself 

into communication itself 

to stop communicating

and become communication

What life do I lead?

What is that activity that belongs to me like?

How do I behave when I have time?

What kind of resilience does this space of mine represent? 

All memory

holds me back a little 

sometimes it makes me bitter 

and pulls me a little further away

but it also helps me find peace 

because the beginning of my path

is not that difficult 

I have help

I find help 

that enables my solution 

my advice

What have they been priming? Who prepared you?

When you feel help

do you feel that the people helping you are vehicles?

Or are they sounds?

Are you capable of sound?

Once you start getting ready

and you ask for help

all the sounds you hear 

are lessons

that transform you into a messenger-vehicle

all the sounds you’ve heard

the words of the teachers

have made you grow

transforming your walk on this earth 

telling you how to embrace the world 

helping you to be brothers and sisters 

and sounds that guard the presence of speech

when the encounter dawns 

the journey of the question.

 

 

Translated by Sandra Botta - Edited by Cecilia Della Croce