Eskimo Poem: Heaven and Hell

2019-08-10T09:53:07+02:00

When we finally die,
we know so little about what happens later.
But people who dream
They often see the dead as they appear
as they were in life.
And that is why we believe that life does not end here on earth.

We have heard of three places where people go after death:
There is a Heavenly Earth, a blessed place
where there is no sadness and fear.
There were the brave who went there
and they came back to tell us about it:
They see people with shovels, happy people
people of laughter and pleasure.
What we see from there are stars like
windows on houses in the villages of the dead
in Heavenly Earth.

There are other underworlds of the dead:
a little deeper there is an area similar to the terrestrial one
with the difference that we are starving on earth
while they are living in abundance there.
Kraip pastures with innumerable herds
and endless plains
with juicy berries tasty to eat.

Everything down there
is happiness and pleasure for the dead.
But there is another place, the land of Jada,
just below the surface of the land we are stepping on.
That's where all the lazy, all the feeble hunters go
and all women who reject tattooing
not wanting to worry about beauty at all.
For life, they were lifeless
and so now after death they squat
heads bent, gloomy and quiet,
hungry and docile
for they have consumed their lives.
Only when a butterfly flies past them
then they lift their heads
(as a birdling opens its uselessly weak beak hunting a mosquito).
If they do get their hands on the butterflies, they will catch a dust bubble
that pops out of their dry throats.

Eskimos: Hunger

2019-08-10T11:26:00+02:00

You, stranger, you who see us only happy and carefree
If only you knew the horrors we often had to endure
you would understand our love for eating, singing and dancing.
There is none of us
who has not experienced a winter of bad hunting
when many were starving.
We are never surprised to hear
that someone died of starvation - we're used to it.
They should not be blamed: The disease comes,
or bad weather destroys the hunt,
Like when a blizzard buries air holes.

I once saw a wise old man hang himself
because he was starving
and he preferred to choose his own way of dying.
But before he died, he filled his mouth with seal bones
to make sure he would have plenty of meat
in the land of the dead.

Once during the winter famine
a woman gave birth to a child
as people lay around her dying of starvation.

What could that baby want from living here on earth?
And how could she possibly live when her mother was starved?
So the mother strangled her and put her out in the frost.
And later she ate her, just to stay alive.

Then one seal was caught and the famine came to an end,
and the mother survived.
But was left paralyzed
because she ate her own blood and her own flesh.

This is what can happen to people.
We went through it all ourselves
and we know what can happen to all people,
so we don't blame them.

And how can anyone who is fat and healthy
understand the frenzy of hunger?

All we know is: we love life so much.

Eskimo or Eskimos are the indigenous peoples who have traditionally inhabited the northern circumpolar region from eastern Siberia (Russia) to Alaska (of the United States), Canada, and Greenland.

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2015-01-21T18:47:00+01:00

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The article originally published on the National Geographic official website.

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Eskimo Poem: Heaven and Hell

Eskimos: Hunger

Explore: Weddings