Cree Dictionary
January 20, 2022
This poem by 2021 Wall Scholar Dallas Hunt is included in his collection “Creeland” (Nightwood Editions, 2020).
Listen to the poem read by Dallas Hunt.
Cree Dictionary by Dallas Hunt
the translation for joy
in Cree is a fried bologna sandwich
the translation for bittersweet in Cree
looks like a cows and plows payment
eight decades too late
the translation for patience
in Cree is an auntie looking after four of her own children
and two of her sister’s
the translation for evil
in Cree is the act of not calling
your mother on a Sunday
the translation for expedition
in Cree is travelling twenty minutes
to the only gas station in Faust, Alberta
to buy a Hygaard pizza sub
the translation for success in Cree
is executing the perfect frog splash
on your younger brother
the Cree word for white man is unpaid child support
the translation for conflicted in Cree
is your deep, steadfast love
for country superstar
Dwight Yoakam (or, depending on
the regional dialect,
George Jones, Patsy Cline
or Blue Rodeo)
the Cree word for constellation
is a saskatoon berry bush in summertime
the translation for policeman
in Cree is mîci nisôkan, kohkôs
the translation for genius
in Cree is my kôhkom muttering in her sleep
the Cree word for poetry is your four-year-old
niece’s cracked lips spilling out
broken syllables of nêhiyawêwin between
the gaps in her teeth
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