Golden UFOs: The Indian Poems

In 1898, Tahirassawichi went to Washington, only to speak about religion, (as he told the American government) only to preserve the prayers. And the Capitol did not impress him. The Library of Congress was all right but not fit to keep the sacred objects which could only be kept in his mud hut (which was crumbling). When by the Washington Monument they asked him if he wanted to go up the elevator or the stairs he answered: "I will not go up. White men heap stones to climb on them. I shall not climb up. I have climbed the mountains that Tirawa made." And Tahirassawichi told the State Department: "Tirawas Hut is the round blue sky (we do not like to have clouds between Tirawa and us). The first thing to do is to choose a sacred place to live in a place devoted to Tirawa, where man may be silent and meditate." - from "Tahirassawichi in Washington." Interweaving myth, legend, history, and contemporary reality, and ranging over the great expanse of North and South America and more than a thousand years of history, "Golden UFOs" takes on an epic quality. Cardenal speaks of assaults on the Iroquois Nation, of political and cultural life in ancient Mexico, contemporary Andean hope for a messianic return of the Inka, the Ghost Dance movement, the disappearance of the buffalo, Pawnee marches of peace and reconciliation, U.S. policy during the Vietnam War, human rights in Central America, an early Jesuit utopia among the Guaran', Quetzalc-atl, and a great number of other subjects. Each text is rich with history, poetry, and spiritual insight. This bilingual edition is the only complete collection of Father Cardenal's Indian poems in either Spanish or English. The poet himself has checked and approved the translations and the glossary of cultural and historical referents.