Just so you know, we are GREATLY IN DEBT to
Maite Stephens, who helped me find a translation to this poem and made the recording. I felt quite lucky to have found someone who speaks Basque--to find someone so incredibly willing to help with recordings and translations is indeed a very special thing.
Thank you, Maite, for your wonderful help.
Now . . . on to the pronunciation and translation:
1st song: Kondairaren Ihauterian (Soinu)
Ur goiena.mp32nd song: Kondairaren Ihauterian (Dantza)
Ur kantari.mp3Text and Translation: | Ur goiena ur barrena jaundonejoaneko akelarre itxurako
illargiaren iturri, etxe honetan sar dadiela urarekin osasuna urarekin osasuna etxe honetan askatasuna. | Water from above water from below fountain of the moon with form of akelarre
from Saint Johns' night,
that it comes into this house with the water the health with the water the health in this house the freedom |
| Ur kantari su dantzari, biek atxiki behar elkarri. | Singing water dancing fire, both have to embrace each other. |
We are singing the second and third movements of a 3 movement work. The whole poem is translated this way (so that you have the whole picture).
Through Maite Stephens, we received international help from the former director of the Official School for the Studies in the Basque Language in Bilbao, Spain. (It's a small world, after all!)
The title (Kondairen Ihauterian) translates to:
In the carnival of HistoryThe song translates to:
Water from above
water from below
fountain of the moon
with form of akelarre (the circled meeting of witches in the forest)
from Saint Johns' night, (this is the night of June 19th, when in many places across the country people go outside at midnight to make big fires)
that it comes into this house
with the water the health
with the water the health
in this house the freedom
The water kills the fire and
the fire the water,
they are both seeds of life
they are both life-givers.
Singing water
dancing fire,
both have to embrace each other.
Water from above
water from below
I put out the fire
that may be in the rock forest
let it be wood
let it be water
for I put out the fire
from above the water
from bellow the water
from the womb of the water.
***Kondairaren ihauterian is the title of a book of poems.
***The poem "Ur goiena..." derives from a basque folk song that talks about how in the Basque Country, at midnight, on New Year's Eve the town's people would go fetch the "first water" from the main plaza's fountain. They would drink it, because according tradition it was believed to have special powers.
The poem has a last part that says:
Suzko iturri
bizibideko ur
jaundonejaoaneko
akelarre itxurako
otoitz bizigarria.
Fountain of fire
water road of life
life-giving prayer
with the form of akelarre
of Saint John's night.
