Songs are like horcruxes in the Harry Potter films -- when you've lived in different cultures, parts of your soul are buried in different songs that your friends and family at home can't understand, and you only half-understand yourself. On days like today, I bring those songs out and mull them over, dust them off and type them out, and finally learn what each word means, which together had meant so much to me in the past.
This song, like "恩典之路 / Endian Zhi Lu / The Path of Grace", is about a path. I was introduced to it in Sønwal Yosep's living room after church one Sunday in Chiang Mai, or maybe it was in the courtyard in front of the church while everyone was eating lunch -- one of the youth, probably a young lady whom I was too shy to speak to and I wouldn't have known enough Rawang to speak much to anyway, pressed me to buy a CD called "Køm Zøp We Shont Nønt / Hkum Tsup ai Tsaw Myit" ("Perfect Love", with the first title in Rawang and the second in Jinghpaw) with videos and songs by a Rawang singer named D Mata. (I still don't even know what clan name "D" is supposed to abbreviate: Døngkang? Døngkung?)
So I bought it, and one of the songs, called "Shongnønt Tvra / The Path of Love" has been one of my favorites ever since. I present it below in Rawang as it appears in the subtitles of the music video, with my own suggested corrections in parentheses, followed by a rough translation into English.
A few things about this song impressed me:
- steadfast, patient hope in God, waiting while praying, implying faithfulness and hope during a long but temporary separation between lover and beloved
- calling the intended person "shongja" (beloved friend)
- the plural use of "loves" and "souls" (like the Thai and Lisu belief in calling back the nine or seven souls and tying them back together with a string bracelet), whereas in an English-speaking worldview love is seen as an uncountable mass noun and each person is seen as having only a single soul
- the importance in Rawang culture of having a peaceful life, which might reflect both the Hebrew concept of shalom, that is, total wellbeing in community, and the political concern with ongoing civil war in Burma
- talking about one's path, or way, as well as the path of the two people together; this can refer to the course and direction of their life, as well as their patterns, habits, outlooks, and set ways
- the strong start of the chorus, "Ngvngdøng shongnøntni na svng shonge" (with a strong, firm love I love you), which calls to mind the Lord's words in Jeremiah 31:3, "I have loved you with an everlasting love." This is appropriately the site of a strong set of power chords by the guitar and bass in the soundtrack, which adds to the deep delight I feel in the song.
- the ending, where the verb í 'to be' is conjugated for future tense with the combination of the 'change of state' or 'upward' suffix -long and the nonpast declarative marker -e, for a combined meaning of ílonge '(it) will be (a peaceful life)'. This reminds me of the passage in Dvzv́rrì (Acts) 1:8 where Jesus tells his apostles, "Ngà shvkse èí lóngnønge" (you will be my witnesses"). In mvngør zung (Rawang summer school) in Chiang Mai one year, we all got T-shirts with this phrase, and I can never forget the teacher (Shøngrvm Jungbay?) making all of us repeat it after him again and again -- Ngà shvkse èí lóngnønge. Fun times!
Shongnønt Tvra / The Path of Love
Mvn (written by) Vgu Døzi
Yo (sung by) D Mata
(Verse 1)
Shongnønt ri na dvpvt
shvngbe na svng zønge
e kvm
nga ni o tvra shvngbe
kangpe kaq svng tvlengo
shongja e Gvray kaq ju erøt
tiq lvpvt mongzøl lun lvm
(Verse 2)
Nga mvsøn ri na svng
tiq dvciq dvpvt wvng (wa?)
zønge
satan ni dvløt (dàløt?) ra we
shvngbe svng jor lun lvm rvt
shongja e nagø ju erøt
nga ni o lvpvt mongzøl lvm
(Chorus)
Ngvngdøng shongnønt ni na svng shonge
jurøt no so ri na svng wa cange
nga ni shongnønt tvra shvngbe
Gvray nønt i kvt nø
shongja e
mongzøl lvpvt i longe
shongja e
mongzøl lvpvt i longe
All my loves for you I give to you.
Believe.
All our path I turn over to the Lord.
Beloved friend, pray to God
To get a peaceful life
My souls to you, for a lifetime, I give.
Though Satan contests
To be able to overcome all
Beloved friend, you too pray
For our life to be peaceful.
With a strong, firm love I love you
While praying, I wait for you alone.
All our path of love
When it's God's will
Beloved friend
It will be a peaceful life
Beloved friend
It will be a peaceful life.
*This post is dedicated to a general hopeful longing inspired by this song, and not to anyone in particular. Thanks to Vgu Døzi for writing such thought-provoking lyrics and to D Mata for singing them so soulfully.
