Willows Revisited

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178on a nest made of maple leaves and fleur-de-lis, and I understand they want a provincial song to go with it. If the Department were to print it on the outside of their anniversary booklet together with the snearth and the provincial flower, we would be that much ahead. Swivel: I never thought of that. Its an excellent idea. How doesit go? Jones-Jones: I have it here on the tape. Its sung to the tune ofYankee Doodle. The Muse:On her bosom the maiden from Trail, Had tattoed the ... Jones-Jones: I'm sorry, folks. That's not it. Its those damn girls in the office. They're always up to tricks with this recorder. I cant leave it a minute. I'm sorry, I should have checked. This is not the one I meant for the Provincial Song.Wraitha Dovecote: I should hope not. Is that the one you wanted to tell me, Pilt?Bedfellow: It might make a good Provincial song, at that. Jones-Jones: It goes like this, and its to the tune of YankeeDoddle: what with all these Americans moving in not to mention those that came from South Dakota's more likely to appeal to the Government than a tune somebody makes up;Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan, thou golden,Thou art the province beautiful, To thee I am beholden.And then there's the chorus and its to the tune of the chorusof Yankee Doodle too. But in the chorus Saskatchewan is given itsold Indian pronunciation with the accent on the third syllable. I thoughtthat would be a good historical touch, linking the present with thepast;
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179 (Sings)Saska -che-wan, keep it up, On thy plains so tender, Rich or poor, or Just hard up, live always will defend her.If you see what I mean.Swivel: Friends, let us all bring this moving ceremony to a closebefore we have our lunch, and I see the coffee is boiling again, by joining here in a circle around Sarah's grave and singing the new Provincial Song for the first time In her honour. All:(Sing)!Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan, thou golden, Thou art the province beautiful, To thee we are beholden.Swivel: Now lets have the chorus good and loud,Alii (Sing):Saska-che-wan, keep it up,On thy plains so tender,Rich or poor, or just hard up, We........At this point the tape becomes confused. Purge Potatok's voice which has Joined in the singing, mil a rich bass, but considerably off key is heard in loud fit Ukrainian, there is a cry of "snake" from Wraitha Dovecote, a cry of "Wraitha, your skirt!" from Bessie Udderton, a loud unprintable stream of profanity from Doctor Bedfellow, something resembling a prayer from Middleduck, considerable extra static from the tape recorder, and John Swivel's voice above the wind and the hissing of coffee boiling over, "I told you to watch that fire!"
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180APPENDIX IIDuck Dinner at Willows, which Bessie Udderton had promised would be finished that evening after the dinner in the Clarendon hotel, was not written until the following morning. It was not thrown on the ceremonial pyre, but has been published nevertheless together with the other poems of the School of Seven in Fifty Years of Progress. It exemplifies Innerness at its best. Duck Dinner at Willows.Ah life, whose humblest in-between collation Holds promise of the ecstasy of days, When stomachs rumble In anticipation, And spirits rise, and voices lift in praise � This is the duck! Crisp on its gilded platter, Filling the air with incense �on the plate, Browned to its ultimate browness lies the batter, Studded with raisins, each as a Jewel of state; Celestial grav||i And like dew at dawning Upon the flowered heaven where angels sang, Glisten and gleam, the promised joy prolonging, The pearls upon the lemon pie meringue: And then the nap, in dreaming and forgetting, A peaceful, quiet sleep that locks away, All frets of the begotten and begetting, And all the cares that mark the passing day � Rest then, and wake again replenished, With soul restored, to face the week anew � And rise again, with fortitude �but famished And meet the hash, and shepherd's pie, and stew.
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181APPENDIX III Souvenir Menu of the Duck Dinner, July 1st, 1954.THE CLARENDON HOTEL A Home Away From Home. P. Cattalo, PropTomato Juice. Olives. Celery. Carrot Sticks.Roast Saskatchewan Duck. (Raisin Dressings)Choke Cherry Jelly. Gravy. Boiled or Mashed Potatoes, Mixed Carrots and Peas.Lemon Pie Canadian Cheese and Crackers,Tea,Coffee, Milk.
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182APPENDIX lVMathildaOf the thirteen Schwantzhacker sisters who were at one time neighbors of Sarah Binks, only the youngest, Mathilda, is still alive. She was the only one of the thirteen who ever married, but her husband died some years ago and she now lives alone at Leader, Saskatchewan, on the proceeds of her father's farm which was purchased on his death by an American Wheat Syndicate. Having in her youth been a friendand companion to Sarah, Mathilda now lives to some extent in the reflected glory of that great poetess. She is occasionally visited and interviewed by literary historians and although she has nothing new to add to her reminiscences of Sarah, she takes great pride in having been the inspiration for the famous Grizzleykick Symphony of poemsbut even more in having been a co-worker and collaborator in the translation from the German of some of Sarahs published work. It had undoubtedly been a joint effort since Sarah herself knew no German.Mathilda still owns and treasures the German-English dictionary of her father's with the aid of which she and Sarah translated so successfully the Lorelei into The Laurel's Egg and Goethe's Du Bist Wie Eine Blume into the well known, You Are Like One Flower. She has promised to give this dictionary to the Binksian Collection when she has no further use for it but in the meantime she occasionally does use it to translate a German poem or so on her own. She does this, not because of any love for German poetry but in order to maintain and perhaps re-establish her connection with Saskatchewan's greatest poet which, in the lapse of
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183years tender to be forgotten.By no stretch of the imagination can Mathilda Schwantzhacker he called a poet in her own right. Even the Saskatchewan Government, always conscious of the importance of the various ethnic groups in the political community, rejected the suggestion that she be included in The School of Seven, pointing out that her translations do not represent, as in the case of Purge Potatok, any poetic feeling for Saskatchewan, or for that matter, any poetic feeling of any kind. Of late howeverfthis has been questioned. It is true that her translations tend, as in the case of her early efforts with Sarah, to be extremely literal, and it is also true that as a Dakota-German she occasionally misses the meaning of German words themselves. But it is to be observed that in some of her more recent translations shebegins to take liberties with the original German texts and givea more free translation which suggests that she may even have some poetic talent of her own. It is always possible that this seed of poesy may some day burgeon into something worth while, but in the meantime her request to the Saskatchewan Government that she be included in the NewYear's honour list and be awarded the S.O.M. has been denied.Mathilda has stated her intention of having all her translations published in a booklet at her own expense as soon as she can afford it. Some however have already appeared in Swine and Kine, and also in The Horsebreeder's Gazette, the old publications in which so much of Sarah's poetry first saw the light of day. The few samples of Mathilda's translations given here atom with her enthusiastic permission are presented not so much for their intrinsic worth or for any contribution to Saskatchewan literature but rather to point out the thematic possibilities of which aspiring poets may take advantage. One of the great difficulties of the embryo poet is to
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184know what to write about.As is to be expected it is the "best known of the German lyrics which have received Mathilda's first attention. In the interest of sound scholarship and to assist the reader in knowing what these translations are all about, note and references have been added. These have been taken from Professor Wotan Scheisske's Bilderbuch des Deutchen Volksmischmasch for Colleges, by permission of the publishers.HEIDENROSLEINSaw a boy a Rosie stand, Rose among the heathen Was so young like morning grand, Fast to see her close he ranned Saw her with much feelin' Rosie, Rosie, Rosie red, Rose among the heathen.Rose," he said, "I'm breaking you, Rose among the heathen." Rosie said, "just try and do, Think I dont know a thing or two? Me, I'm not Just leavin'. Rosie, Rosie, Rosie, red In among the heathen.And the wild boy went and broke, Rose among the heathen, Rose defended self with stroke, helped her yet no tear and choke Had to take it even; V Rosie, Rosie, Rosie, red, -Rose among the heathen,This is one of Mathilda's mistakes. It should be heath. ranned, here evidently stands for, had run.'the suggestion here is that Rosie was a communist and thereforethe boy was justified in deserting her. The German is brechen. to vomit. A more literal translationwould be, "I'm getting rid of you."5) choke, here is a free rendering of ach, meaning, ouch, A better translation would have been, helped her yet no pain and ouch.
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185Der Gute Kamerad.I had, I had one comrade A better find you not, The drum it struck for trouble, By my side walked he double, In self-same step and trot.A bullet came a-flying, Owes me or owes it he? Him has it now away torn He lies me at the feet borne, As if a piece from me.Will me the hand yet reach up, While yet I'm even sad � '"I can you hand not give it, i Stay you long time and live? It, My good, good, comerade." 'The impression is given here by the use of I had, I had, that there may have been more than one comrade. Mathilda however disposes of this idea by the use of one, in the first line. In this she is true to the original. As far as known there was only one comrade.Notice the spelling of comrade here into comerade. This is ingenious on the part of Mathilda since it therefore rhymes with sad in the second line. The repetition of good has no particular significance since the possibility of there being two comradeshas already been dealt with.O Tannenbaum.Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree, How true are all you pages You green not but in summer's throes, No, too in winter when it snows, Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree, How true are all your pages.pages might better have been translated as leaves
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186Siehst Du das Meer?See you the sea? It shines upon its flood, The sun so swell,Yet in the deep where pearls lie in the mud It's dark as hell.And like the sea, in prideful swell is rolled, My wanton mind,But these my songs, that seem to be of gold Are not the same kind.And though they oft emit a magic sham, Of love in hay, They're actually like pearls within the clam, Dark tucked away.1)This is one of the unusual poems in which Mathilda catches the spirit of the original hut departs from her usual literal translation.Ein Gleiches A Smoothyover all tree-tops is rue, In all the hill-tops feel you, Hardly a huff,The birdlets shut up in the forest, Just you wait, Horace You'll sleep enough.1Mathilda was unable to translate Ein Gleiches and simply called it,,A Smoothy which is completely wrong.2 This also is wrong, although it makes more sense than the original. Mathilda translated balde, as Baldy, the popular appellation for a man who is bald. She had learned somewhere that the Latin poet, Horace had been bald, and she selected this name in preference to Elisha, which she had also been considering, because it rhymes better with forest.

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