Samuel Makidemewabe (storyteller) and Howard Norman (translator) - Quiet Until the Thaw lyrics

Her name tells of how it was with her. The truth is, she did not speak in winter. Everybody learned not to ask her questions in winter, once this was known about her. The first winter this happened we looked in her mouth to see if something was frozen. Her tongue maybe, or something else in there. But after the thaw she spoke again and told us it was fine for her that way. So each spring we looked forward to that.