Re: CHAT: TRANS: something slightly more deep (was: TRANS: flutes)

yl-ruil@2crfm.net writes:
>Erce, Erce, Erce, mother of earth,
>May the All-Ruler, Eternal Lord grant you,
>Fields growing and flourishing,
>Fertile and strengthening,
>High blades, splendid fruits,
>And broad harvests of barley
>And white harvests of wheat,
>And all the crops of the earth.
Here's the Saalangal translation:

Yakás, Yakás, Yakás, yu amái basá yakás
Bay nu yuyímongum tu sakinchám nu yatgimáy un,
As biw sahisím kun sachálam nu punó,
As biw sagamnís kun sakakúl nu punó,
As biw satábit nu dinó basá hápit kun biw sanikúl nu gúmong,
Kun biw sarémus nu himóy basá  kábe,
Kun biw saliyám nu himóy basá  paráy,
Kun góka yu biw himóy basá yakás

English:

Yakás, Yakás, Yakás, mother of earth
Maybe granted by the eternal lord to you,
Growing and flourishing fields,
Fertile and strong fields,
High leaves of grass and  splendid fruits,
And great harvests of taro
And abundant harvests of rice,
And all the harvests of the earth


I did the best I can  on this. Some bits were difficult because i'm still
figuring out how subject, non subject markers work in verbless phrases
(which is what most of this translation is). I think I did just fine.
Yakás is not only the general term for the ground we walk on but the
goddess of the earth herself. Also, there is no one main god in the
Saalangal pantheon, so I just used "eternal lord" (sakinchám nu yatgimáy).
The Saalangal would see this poem as kind of odd, since they believe that
the earth is always fertile and does not need to be given fertility.

Also, I substituted taro (kábe) and rice (paráy) for barley and wheat.
Taro and rice are the two staple foods on the island. I also guessed that
"high blades" referred to grass. I had to translate it as such because
there aren't the variety of words for leaves as there are in other
languages. If it's a leaf, it's always translated as "dinó".
Interestingly, this poem looks like it could be a prayer used during
harvest festivals. I really liked this one a lot.


Anyway, the interlinear, as best as I can. I've separated each line for
better readability:

- Yakás, Yakás, Yakás, yu amái basá yakás
Yakás, Yakás, Yakás, subj.marker  mother of  earth

-Bay nu yuyímong tu sakinchám nu yatgimáy un,
May linker fut.give.dir.foc  subj.marker eternal linker lord you

-As biw sahisím kun sachálam nu punó,
Non.subj.marker pl.marker growing and flourishing linker field

-As biw sagamnís kun sakakúl nu punó,
Non.subj.marker pl.marker fertile and strong linker field

-As biw satábit nu dinó basá hápit kun biw sanikúl nu gúmong,
Non.subj.marker  pl.marker tall linker leaf  of grass and pl.marker
splendid linker fruit

-Kun biw sarémus nu himóy basá  kábe,
And pl.marker great linker harvest of taro

-Kun biw saliyám nu himóy basá  paráy,
And pl.marker abundant linker harvest of rice

-Kun góka yu biw himóy basá yakás
And all subj.marker pl.marker harvest of earth

KEY:
Subj.marker - subject marker
non.subj.marker - non subject marker
pl.marker - plural marker
dir.foc - directional focus
fut - future

You will notice the linker used a lot. The linker, among other uses, is
used to link adjectives to nouns. It must be present between an adjective
an a noun always. Of course since I dont speak Saalangal, and i'm still
working on the grammar, etc, I probably have made a few mistakes, but hey,
as long as it sounds good to me, it's OK :).

________________________________________________

It's worth the risk of burning, to have a second chance...