Savagala consequiki lima pong
see pur brilima consequini shishi ― sea-von
Y lara krish-krish: imea dime choral.
Harult fou. Lox.
Here is my approximate translation of the text. Please see my appendix and note for my entomological tree graphs.
"The Waves of Sound"
A month left, our people sing together.
Mermaids breathe under black skies; fish gills.
Not us. We build and rebuild. Scissors-like
dancing legs.
fighting with waves:
So we began to sing with the waves.
Do not name what you don't understand.
Our people dance over strange land, sea-soaked
we can't meet in the night to sing and breathe without gills
but the waves still go on: we wait for them. We swim.
We drown. Silent sound.
Part Two: Overview of The Translation
Most of the words in the language were derived from sounds; “krish-krish” is what the New Rivers tribe believed the sound the waves actually made. Pronouns and articles are usually forgotten about or added onto the word they affect. It's a very small language as far as vocabulary goes, and very fixated on water. When the world changed, and the meaning of water changed, the language no longer had purpose. Although some words have been adapted to our English language, such as savagala, we need to be careful with our work as direct translations. Savagala, for instance, is part of our current term savage. I can assure the committee that this connection reflects our own prejudices rather than the lived reality of the people. They had technology, as stanza two indicates, and they had a complex handle on their situation.
At first, this poem was thought to be a celebratory poem about a monthly ritual to honour water during the full moon. Rather, we now know that this acts as eulogy and memoriam for a people.
In my research, I have found several versions of this poem. This is the latest version known; about one year after this was written and placed inside glass, the entire New River tribe walked into the rising flood water. This act was deliberate. The New Rivers people decided to go with the water into death, knowing that their culture would not survive in the new civilization. They left this poem persevered in glass, so we could study it and draw our own conclusions.
Part Three: The Next Steps
At this present date, I'm wondering if this wasn't a poem, but rather lyrics to a song. I propose that my next area of study is to locate the lost instruments of this tribe, and work on creating what has been lost. By recording this, and inputting it to our cloud system of digital storage, we can keep something beautiful to listen to for a little while longer.
FIN
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Francis Gideon is a writer of m/m romance, but he also dabbles in mystery, fantasy, historical, and paranormal fiction. He likes to stay up late, drink too much coffee, and read too many comic books. When not writing fiction, Francis teaches college English classes and studies for his PhD. He has published several critical articles on everything from the Canadian poet and artist P.K. Page, transgender identity in the YouTube community, and character deaths in the TV show Hannibal. He writes his novels using his middle name, so that his students don’t Google him and ask too many questions.
Email: [email protected]
Website: francisgideon.wordpress.com
Twitter: @francisgideon88
8tracks: francisgideon
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