ON A FIREWOOD, I AM BLAZE: POETICS OF MEMORY IN A KRAHÔ RITUAL CHANT

Abstract This paper presents the transcription and translation of the lyrics of a Krahô ritual chant, Amerindian people who live in the north of the ê language. This chant is an exemplary piece of one of the several genres of verbal arts found among the Krahô, which constitute central expressives forms in their vast and complex ritual system. I propose here a cross-exercise in which the ethnographic commentary enriches the translation, and the commentary on translation enriches the ethnography, both movements contributing to a more detailed understanding of the text and its context. On that basis, I interpret this chant as a reflection on its own process of transmission and as a place of elaboration of a poetics of memory