What’s the tribal speech on the album mean?
REST MY HEAD
Just before the fourth song (titled “Rest My Head”) on the Gate Between Two Walls album, my friend Ambi recorded the phrase, “Mare dayaye mini uruma?” It means, “Who will come and tell us?” He was telling me (Jason) the story of the previous group of missionaries who told them some of “God’s talk” but then quit and went home. They did not finish the story. Ambi said the tribe wondered how they would hear the rest of God’s talk after their missionaries left them. “Now, we wondered, who will come and tell us?”
For the curious linguist:
MARE = who?
DAYAYE = he will come (nayaye = she will come / mayaye = i will come)
MINI = to us (moni = to me / muri = to him/her)
URU = to inform (tare = to play / way = to look)
MA = for the purpose of
[‘mare da’jaje ‘mini ‘uruma?]
Ambi on his way to the river in Wabuku village, Papua New Guinea
HEAR MY CRY
On the outro of Hear My Cry, Andrian retold us the story of being left by a missionary who promised to return but didn’t. Here is the part of the story included on the album:
Genesis wan oro a oro tedekenmi = He told us the story of Genesis
otu orowa iti onana o yawadem = he only finished about three pages
na ana dow idadenmi = just like that he went, he left us
mini ana o o nay = he didn’t tell us (why)
ananatu idadenmi = he just left for no reason
na wawna a dow imatunamate = He’s still gone, he left completely
mite amamaem watama dowwo dayayeyo na noko = We thought he’d return, but no
imatunamate dow = he left completely
ta anis = the end
Andrian drying out some tobacco leaves by the fire.
-Jason Cizdziel