Burial

The woman's shield is edged in black
its center coloured by the glow
the dance she weaves moves in and out
of pillars of smoke and flame

she sings to no-one and to all
she dances to the rattle's pitch
her arms outstretched, she calls the earth
and sky to be her witnesses

the dim-lit shapes beyond the fire
of bear, of fox, of toad, of crow
in pine-like chorus moan reply:
her spirits watch her sorrowing

the dead man's corpse lies still and cold
upon the scaffold hardening
no spell recalls her lover's eyes
his smile is only memory

coyote, vulture, now will bear
his body to the quiet place
her spirits also now depart
and she alone is dancing there

her shield now too is cold and hard
the frost is beaded on its rim
she slings it on her back and goes:
the burial is finished.

-- 16.xi.90

Commentary: A test of the principle of linguistic purity

A literalist may argue that what is happening here is not strictly a "burial", since the corpse has been placed on a scaffold. "Funeral" could of course be used, and might indeed be more correct, for that refers to the ceremony attending the dead prior to inhumation or cremation, for example. But I have often striven to use Germanic roots rather than Romance. Here I suppose I fail mightily, so the objection to "funeral" (a word derived from Latin) is weakened:

center, coloured, dance, moves, pillar, flame,
chorus, reply, spirit,
corpse, scaffold, memory,
coyote, vulture, quite, place, depart,
finished:

All of these words come from sources other than the Germanic languages, although today they are common enough. The most outlandish, I suppose, is "coyote", which comes from the Meso-American language Nahuatl. I did wonder about that as I wrote the piece. A more "pure" version might be:

The woman's shield is edged in black
its middle by the glow is hued
the step she weaves goes in and out
of clouds of smoke and fire

she sings to no-one and to all
she steps out to the rattle's pitch
her arms outstretched, she calls the earth
and sky to be her witnesses

the dim-lit shapes beyond the fire
of bear, of fox, of toad, of crow
in pine-like ringing moan reply:
her soul-mates watch her sorrowing

the dead man's body still and cold
upon high gallows hardening:
no spell recalls her lover's eyes
his smile now only in her mind

the wolves and ravens now will bear
his body to the sighing ground
her soul-mates also now go forth
and she alone is standing there

her shield now too is cold and hard
the frost is beaded on its rim
she slings it on her back and goes:
the burial is over.

"Scaffold" non est "gallows", but I thought of "upon the high ground hardening" and rejected that. The basic notion of the poem is, in fact, not particularly "Germanic": I can't recall reading of any German group that exposed the dead, rather than practicing immediate inhumation or cremation. Still, I think the piece works well enough as it stands. The altered version alters too much of the meaning as a sacrifice to language. I have no plans to change the title to "Funeral", nor to propose as definitive the "pure English" version given just above.