Matsay peyaach nyii 'uuchuch etehaamiih umaaw. Yaayp peyaach mes-haraay uu-ull, peyii uu-ull, puy uu-ull, peyaam uu-ull. 'Ily 'ehin pattk wechall bandeerr rewii, Aq 'ehin saay esally aayaap tuuyaq. Peyaach wiich kenaap heyaay 'iipaych nyechewayp tenyeway. An empty barren desert, shifting shiftless sand A broken, splintered flag-pole A withered, bony hand, Evidence of civilization. |
Notes & Translation
Of "The Barren Desert" by Ted Couro, from Let's Talk 'Iipay Aa (1975)
Matsay peyaach nyii 'uuchuch etehaamiih umaaw.
This desert doesn't grow a thing.
Yaayp peyaach mes-haraay uu-ull,
This wind piles up the sand,
peyii uu-ull, puy uu-ull, peyaam uu-ull.
Piles it here, piles it over there, piles it this way.
'Ily 'ehin pattk wechall bandeerr rewii,
A broken, cracked stick like a flagpole.
Aq 'ehin saay esally
A dry hand-bone
aayaap tuuyaq.
are lying together.
Peyaach wiich kenaap heyaay
This tells that long ago
'iipaych nyechewayp tenyeway.
People were living here.
Matsay peyaach nyii 'uuchuch etehaamiih umaaw.
This desert doesn't grow a thing.
- Matsay: "Desert" from 'emat "land" and saay "dry".
- Matsay peyaach: "This desert". The -ch makes the whole phrase the subject of the clause.
- nyii... umaaw: This construction with "nyii" amplifies the "not", sometimes equating to "not even...", "not a thing..." or "never...". Here, "nyii 'uuchuch... umaaw" can mean "not a thing" or "nothing".
- etehaamii: "Grows" (transitive) or "makes it grow". This word is not found in the Mesa Grande dictionary (though it obviously exists) but has been recorded in Tiipay, meaning to grow or raise, e.g. raise children. It stems from the prefix etaa- "make something do something" and hemii, "grows up".
Yaayp peyaach mes-haraay uu-ull,
This wind piles up the sand,
- Yaayp: Can be a verb meaning "the wind is blowing" or "it is windy", or a noun: "the wind", as it is here.
- Yaayp peyaach: "This wind". The use of "peyaa" in cases like this seems to be more for illustrative effect than grammatical necessity.
peyii uu-ull, puy uu-ull, peyaam uu-ull.
Piles it here, piles it over there, piles it this way.
- Peyii, puy, peyaam: All of these are modifications to the demonstratives peyaa, "this" or puy, "that".
- Peyaa + i = peyii "here, at this place".
- Puu + i = puy "there, at that place".
- Peyaa + m = peyaam "to here, hither, to this place".
'Ily 'ehin pattk wechall bandeerr rewii,
A broken, cracked stick like a flagpole.
- 'Ily 'ehin: A stick (or pole). 'Ily is a blanket term for wood, timber, trees, poles, logs, and sticks.
- 'Ily 'ehin pattk wechall: By piling on verbs, we can describe this one noun. Literally, this is: "A stick is one, is broken, is cracked in two." But in this sentence, it should be read as: "A broken, cracked stick..."
- 'Ily... bandeerr rewii: "A stick looks like a flagpole." First is the subject, then the thing it looks like, then the verb rewii, "looks like".
- bandeerr: Loanword from Spanish bandera "flag", it can apparently mean either flag or flagpole.
Aq 'ehin saay esally
A dry hand-bone
- Aq 'ehin saay: As in the previous line, the verbs come together, here meaning: "A (one) dry bone".
- This is probably non-standard word order: "hand bone" is probably esally aq (hand's bone) in regular speech.
aayaap tuuyaq.
are lying together.
- aayaap tuuyaq: "Is lying together". Aayaap means "is together with" or "mixed with", used for long objects. The thing the bone is "together with" is probably the flagpole from earlier.
- tuuyaq: Since a bone is a long object, it will "lie" when it is placed somewhere, taking the verbs yaq and tuuyaq as opposed to ewaa and tewaa, used for boxy, chunky objects that "sit".
Peyaach wiich kenaap heyaay
This tells that long ago
- wiich kenaap: "Says and tells". -ch on wii connects the two verbs under the same subject (peyaach). The use of both wii "says" and kenaap "tells" seems redundant. It is uncertain how necessary it is to use both, but the use of two similar verbs in a row like this seems to be fairly common, where a more general word like wii is paired with a more specific word like kenaap.
'iipaych nyechewayp tenyeway.
People were living here.
- 'iipaych: "People". The use of -ch makes this word a subject, but by not using -vech, keeps it indefinite, telling us that an unknown, unspecified group of people lived here.
- nyechewayp tenyeway: "Were living". The heyaay "long ago" from the previous line tells us that this was in the past. The "here" in the translation is implied (we're obviously talking about this place and not someplace else).