Last Words of the Prophet is an interesting poem, because it has no known author (Anonymous) except Washington Matthews, who only translated it. I could not find anything about this poem online; there are completely no traces of it anywhere beside the book (or perhaps I did not research hard enough). However, after further research, I noticed that this “poem” was actually a Navajo mountain chant. At first, this information seemed to be irrelevant, but its translator, Washington Matthews, was best known for his studies of Native Americans, especially the Navajo. This thrilled me, like an archaeologist digging up a seemed-to-be ordinary rock, only to discover that it holds the secret of life and death from millennia ago. Now firstly I will talk
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The words of this poem suggest a bright mood, as the Prophet does not really “die” (it was just his ascension to the holy place where the gods reign, becoming the nature itself), and from high above, he will bless his brother with good harvests and peace. However, this poem still feels really sad, imagine a scene where an elderly father lying on his deathbed, and as his only son arrives, he smiles and pats his head one last time, “Everything will be alright.” I could not help but felt a weight upon my heart when I read this poem. This is one of the literature pieces that will leave you sitting in silence after reading, but if you never had a caring sibling who will always be there for you, the feelings will be difficult to duplicate. Days have passed, but a mere mention of this poem still puts me in the past, where I imagined this scene happening. An elder brother, who is the Prophet of the tribe, was dying, and he called upon his kid brother to his side. With his dying breaths, he pointed to the sky and said, “When you see the sky weeps and the heaven roars, it’s me talking to you. When the harvest comes good and plenty, It’s the ordering I gift to you.” This is a poem of death, but not the death we fear and hate; this is a poem of love and dream. Now we will move to the next poem, which will soon be used to compare to Last Words of the Prophet. Beholds, A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal, by William
The words of this poem suggest a bright mood, as the Prophet does not really “die” (it was just his ascension to the holy place where the gods reign, becoming the nature itself), and from high above, he will bless his brother with good harvests and peace. However, this poem still feels really sad, imagine a scene where an elderly father lying on his deathbed, and as his only son arrives, he smiles and pats his head one last time, “Everything will be alright.” I could not help but felt a weight upon my heart when I read this poem. This is one of the literature pieces that will leave you sitting in silence after reading, but if you never had a caring sibling who will always be there for you, the feelings will be difficult to duplicate. Days have passed, but a mere mention of this poem still puts me in the past, where I imagined this scene happening. An elder brother, who is the Prophet of the tribe, was dying, and he called upon his kid brother to his side. With his dying breaths, he pointed to the sky and said, “When you see the sky weeps and the heaven roars, it’s me talking to you. When the harvest comes good and plenty, It’s the ordering I gift to you.” This is a poem of death, but not the death we fear and hate; this is a poem of love and dream. Now we will move to the next poem, which will soon be used to compare to Last Words of the Prophet. Beholds, A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal, by William