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Owonrin Meji
Come gather all around me now,
you divination clients for this session,
for it's for many people here together
Owonrin speaks, as Ifa will explain.
"All tribal marks are gathered now,
some faces here have thirty carvings,
horizontally: that's called abaja
Some others here have twenty
chevrons on their face: that's keke,
and others still have fifty lines
that we call woro-woro, vertical."
These were the ones who cast for Odunmbaku,
the son of Ifa, yes, Orunmila's own son.
They told their client he must sacrifice
five bags of cowries and a five-toed chicken
to put outside, close to the road,
taken by Hawk, then lost from sight.
The sacrifice was gone, accepted.
Iku, that's Death, came looking;
and happy Odunmbaka said: "Good heavens,
't was Hawk took Chicken, and your road is blocked.
This year I cannot go with you,
so next year better, Death!
I'm very sorry, but you know: that's life!"
Death shrugged his shoulders, for whatever
we say about him: he's an honest fellow,
who never takes what not belongs to him.
The people sang and danced
and loudly praised their Ifa,
saying: "This year we should have died,
but Iku just took Chicken,
and left us living, yet to see another year.
That's what the Awo's said:
"All tribal marks are gathered now,
some faces here have thirty carvings,
horizontally: that's called abaja
Some others here have twenty
chevrons on their face: that's keke
and others still have fifty lines
that we call woro-woro, vertical."
These were the ones who cast for Odunmbaku,
the son of Ifa, yes, Orunmila's own son.
All make the sacrifice, along with Odunmbaku,
a chicken to Iku, for us to live some more. An Ifa divination text from Jaap Verduijn's Odu Ifa Corpus. Ifa as a divination method is found in many countries in West Africa. However, the Yoruba peoples have perfected it. The presented texts are translations, rewritings and interpretations of original Yoruba divination verses, in which the traditional "poetry-like" cadence and rhythm has been preserved and/or recreated as far as the English language allows. The texts are part of my "working corpus" as an Ifa diviner.
More about Ifa on http://www.qondio.com/mama.pl?a=intelshow&i=17751 |
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May, 2012
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