Cherokee Travelers' Blessings

I translated these poems when my father, Paul Ray Burch Jr., chose to end his life by declining to submit to dialysis treatments.

Cherokee Travelers' Blessing I

loose translation by Michael R. Burch

I will extract the thorns from your feet.

For yet a little while, we will walk life's sunlit paths together.

I will love you like my own brother, my own blood.

When you are disconsolate, I will wipe the tears from your eyes.

And when you are too sad to live, I will put your aching heart to rest.

*

Cherokee Travelers' Blessing II

loose translation by Michael R. Burch

Happily may you walk

in the paths of the Rainbow.

                  Oh,

and may it always be beautiful before you,

beautiful behind you,

beautiful below you,

beautiful above you,

and beautiful all around you

where in Perfection beauty is finished.

*

Cherokee Travelers' Blessing III

loose translation by Michael R. Burch

May Heaven’s warming winds blow gently there,

where you reside, 

and may the Great Spirit bless all those you love,

this side of the farthest tide.

And wherever you go,

whether the journey is fast or slow,

may your moccasins leave many cunning footprints in the snow.

And when you look over your shoulder, may you always find the Rainbow.

*

Published by Better Than Starbucks