A Magnificent Text

[yankeedoodle]

A magnificent text
https://ioncoja.ro/un-text-magnific/

Mechanical translation from Romanian

The President of the United States of America, Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), made the offer, in 1854, for the state to buy a large part of the Indian territory, and the Indian people were promised a reservation. He received a response to this offer from the Seattle captain.

This letter is one of the most beautiful and profound thoughts ever uttered about man's environment. The letter is being sent to all countries of the world, on the occasion of World Environment Day, June 5, by UNEP, and the city of SEATTLE was named after this captain.

"When the great White Chief of Washington sends his voice that he wants to buy our land - he asks too much of us.

How can you sell something or buy the sky and the heat of the earth? Such a thing is completely foreign to us.

We do not own the freshness of the air and the clarity of the water.

Every particle of this earth is holy to my people.

Every shining pine needle, every grain of sand in the river ford, every little mist in the darkness of the forest, are holy in the thoughts and life of my people, we are part of the earth and he is part of us.

Scented herbs are our sisters.

The deer, the stallion, the great eagle - they are our brothers. The rocky peaks, the succulent pastures, the pony's warm body and the man all belong to the same family. This shining water flowing through torrents and rivers is not only water, but also the blood of our ancestors. If we sell you the land, you must know that it is holy. That every reflection in the clear lake speaks of events and memories in the life of my people. The murmur of water - is the voice of my father-father. Rivers are our brothers, we quench our thirst. Rivers carry our canoes. They feed our children.

If we sell you the land, you must remember and teach your children that the rivers are our brothers and yours. That is why you will have to offer the river the goodness that you did not offer to your brother. We know the white man doesn't understand us. To him, one land is just like any other. To the mother earth and the brother-heaven they behave as to things that can be bought, plundered, sold like cattle or shining ornaments. His greed will destroy the earth and leave him desolate. I do not know.

Our way of life is different from yours. Just looking at your cities, the red man's eyes hurt. There is no corner of peace in the cities of the white man. There is no place to hear the opening of the leaves in spring or the trembling of the mosquito's wing. The greatest treasure of the red man is the air. The white man doesn't even seem to notice the air he's breathing. Like someone who's been dying for a long time - he's immune to the stench.

If we sell your land, you must remember that our air is precious to us. That the air shares its spirit with the whole life it sustains. The wind that gave my grandfather the first breath will receive his last breath.

If we sell you the land, you must guard it as something holy. Like a place where the white man will be able to inhale the air sweetened by the scent of flowers. We will examine your offer to buy our land.

If we decide to agree, we will demand that you meet the following condition: The white man will have to treat the animals of this earth as his brothers.

What is man without animals? If the animals disappeared, man would die of the great loneliness of the spirit. Everything that happens to animals will soon happen to humans. Everything in the world is connected. You will have to teach your children that under their feet is the ashes of our ancestors. In order to respect the land, you will tell them that their land is rich through the lives of our ancestors. You will have to teach your children, as we teach our own, that the earth is our mother. What happens to the earth, so do its children.

If man spits on the ground, he spits on himself.

The earth does not belong to man.

Man belongs to the earth.