Thank you, Maite, for your wonderful help.
Now . . . on to the pronunciation and translation:
1st song: Kondairaren Ihauterian (Soinu) Ur goiena.mp3
2nd song: Kondairaren Ihauterian (Dantza) Ur kantari.mp3
Text and Translation:
| 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 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 History
The 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.
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From: http://www.buber.net/Basque/Folklore/aunamendi.akelarre.php
"Basque Mythology: Akelarre
[Akelarre literally means «field of the he-goat»]. The Akelarre is a plain of Zugarramurdi situated in front of the entrance to the cavern called Akelarren-leze «cave of Akelarre». It is believed that, in that spot and in that cavern, the witches of old met. In the vestibule of the cave, at a small height above the floor, a hole opens in the wall like a window, which, as the the neighbors of that locality say, is the hall where the devil, in the figure of a he-goat, received the witches. In the flat floor of the entry and of the vestibule, which preserve the remains of prehistoric homes, the devout of Aker -- or spirit in the form of the he-goat -- met to pay him their worship: adoration, offerings, telling of accounts, acceptance of orders."
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