Native American Poet

Sarah's Poets

Native American Poet

The Navajo word "hozhoni" is usually translated to mean "beauty" or "beautiful." But it can also mean "balance" and refer to the natural, healthy state of things. After reading this poem twice and getting a feel for its rhythm, let the children know the different meanings of "hozhoni" in this poem.

Song of the Earth

Navajo

Daltso hozhoni

Daltso hozho'ka'

Daltso hozhoni

All is beautiful

All is beautiful indeed

All is beautiful

No Mother Earth

And Father Sky

Meet each other, join each other,

Companions always to each other.

All is beautiful

All is beautiful indeed

All is beautiful

The night of darkness

And the dawn of light

Meet each other, join each other,

Companions always to each other.

All is beautiful

All is beautiful indeed

All is beautiful

Now the white corn

And the yellow corn

Meet each other, join each other,

Companions always to each other.

All is beautiful

All is beautiful indeed

All is beautiful

Now Life That Never Ends

And Happiness of All Things

Meet each other, join each other,

Companions always to each other.

All is beautiful

All is beautiful indeed

All is beautiful

Daltso hozhoni

Daltso hozho'ka'

Daltso hozhoni.

Bruchac, Joseph, translator. 1996. Four Ancestors: stories, songs, and poems from Native North America. Illus by S.S. Burrus, Jeffrey Chapman, Murv Jacob, and Duke Sine. Mahwah, N.J: BridgeWater Books. ISBN 0816738432.

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Extension

Read this poem as a class by having one person read the main text, and then have 2 groups read the refrain of the poem.

For example,

group one will read "All is beautiful;"

group two will echo with "All is beautiful indeed;"

then groups one and two can join in unison with "All is beautiful."

This might allow the class to feel the meaning of this poem to its fullest.

Discuss how the refrain makes you feel when hearing it sung as a chorus (or recited as a group).

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