Hold out your hands and let me lay upon them a sheaf of freshly picked sweetgrass, loose and flowing, like newly washed hair. Golden green and glossy above, the stems are banded with purple and white where they meet the ground. Hold the bundle up to your nose. Find the fragrance of honeyed vanilla over the scent of river water and black earth and you understand its scientific name: Hierochloe odorata, meaning the fragrant, holy grass. In our language it is called wiingaashk, the sweet-smelling hair of Mother Earth. Breathe it in and you start to remember things you didn’t know you’d forgotten.

伸出你的手，让我把一捆刚采摘的甜草放在它们上面，松松的，飘逸的，像刚洗过的头发。金绿色，上面有光泽，茎与地面接触处有紫色和白色的条纹。把包裹举到你的鼻子。在河水和黑土的香气中找到蜜糖香草的香味，你就会明白它的学名：Hierochloe odorata，意思是芳香的圣草。在我们的语言中，它被称为wiingaashk，地球母亲散发着芳香的头发。深吸一口气，你就会开始记得那些你不知道却忘记了的事情。