1914: LBDB’s “Chinook-English Songs”, part 9 of 15 “Tenas Bed Sante” / “Cradle Hymn”
Here’s another fascinatingly flawed song translation by Laura Belle Downey-Bartlett.
(A link to all installments in this mini-series.)
“Hush my child, lie still and slumber”
(image credit: National Museum of American History)
Pages 28 & 29 of LBDB’s book, “Chinook-English Songs” (Portland, OR: Kubli-Miller, 1914) are song #9, “Tenas Bed Sante”. Here are her lyrics, with my translation into English of what they’re saying.
Let me try again to get you thinking about the quality of these Chinuk Wawa lyrics (which we’d have to call Central Dialect, I guess): would you be glad to sing the English translation that I’m providing?
TENAS BED SANTE.
‘Little Bed Song.’Ict.
‘1.’Nah: nika tenas, kee-kwilla pee moosum, ‘Hey, my child, down and sleep,’
Sahale Tah-manawis nanich mika bed, ‘The guardian spirit above sees your bed,’
Kah-kwa Sahale klosh chaco, halo kwun-um, ‘That’s how the sky gets along all right, not counting,’
Chaco kee-kwilla kopa mika letate, ‘Coming down to your head,’
Konsi klosh kah-kwa, hy-iu nanich mika, ‘How good it is, looking at you,’
Wake yah-ka iskam okoke Sahale Tenas Man, ‘(S)he doesn’t take that Sky Boy,’
Yah-ka chaco kee-kwilla kopa illahee, ‘(S)he comes down to the ground,’
Pee yah-ka chaco tenas, kah-kwa mika. ‘And (s)he gets small, like you.’Mox.
‘Two.’Hy-as klimmin, wake kull mika bed, ‘It’s very soft, your bed’s not hard,’
Mitlite Sahale Papa bed, kull, wake klosh; ‘There’s the God bed, it’s hard, bad;’
Chee yah-ka nanich, mitlite ict kuitan house, ‘(S)he’s just now seen, there’s a stable,’
Yah-ka Sahale Tenas bed, dly tupso. ‘Her/his little sky bed, it’s hay.’
Kwanisum nika yi-em konaway yah-ka, ‘I always tell everything of hers/his,’
Mesah-chie tellicum mamook kopa Sahale Tyee; ‘Bad people work for God;’
Kah-ta yah-ka mamoloos nika Sahale Pape? ‘How did he die, my sky father?’
Mamook nika sulux, konsi nika shunta. ‘Make me mad, when I sing!’Klone.
‘3.’Nah: nika tenas, wake sulux kopa mika, ‘Hey: my child, don’t be mad at yourself,’
Klonas nika shunta, mika tum-tum kull, ‘Maybe I’ll sing, (and) your heart will be hard,’
Mika ma-ma mitlite kopa mika, ‘Your mother is with you,’
Mitlite yah-ka lemah klosh nanich mika. ‘Her hand is there, taking care of you.’
Klosh mika tum-tum pee hy-iu kwass, ‘You’re happy and scared to death,’
Mamook kopa Sahale Tyee, konaway sun; ‘Work for God, every day;’
Alki yah-ka klatawa, kwanisum mitlite, ‘(S)he’s going to go, always being there,’
Wau-wau mika tum-tum hy-iu shunta. ‘Say my heart is singing.’
You can compare that with the original English lyrics:
CRADLE HYMN. 1 Hush my child, lie still and slumber, Hcly angels guard thy bed, Heavenly blessings with-out number, Gently falling on thy head. How much better thou’rt attended, Than the Son of God could be; . When from heaven He descended, And became a child like thee. 2 Scft and easy is thy cradle, Coarse and hard thy Saviour lay; When His birth-place was a stable, And His softest bed was hay. Oh, to tell the won-drous story, How His foes abused their King; How they killed the Lord of glory, Makes me angry while I sing. 3 Hush, my child, I did not chide thee, Though my song may seem so hard; “Tis thy mcther sits beside thee, And her arms shall be thy guard, May’st thou learn to know and fear Him, Love and serve Him all thy days; Then to dwell forever near Him, Tell His love and sing His praise.
In my opinion, we have here yet another massive failure of translation into Jargon by LBDB.
If you want a moral of the story, I’ll just say an eternal truth: it’s very hard to be a translator.
