More from my Journals: Nepali Folksongs



Singing Nepali Folksongs



Devanagari Script

Here from my journals are fragments of Nepali folksongs that I transcribed while hearing locals sing and later translated:

Sarara, yo man dharara

(What to do, this heart’s crying too.)

Samjera naroi jaane bellai ma

(thinking back please don’t cry when it’s time to leave)

Paani paryo, kahaa paryo bunda?, runcha mana bhet kahile nahunda

(Rain is falling, where is rain falling? ‘We will never meet again’ keeps calling.)

Mero maya, chha bhane teta, Paani Khaani, Nyu paari aau eta

(My love for you is this big, I say. As if thirsty, silently come this way!)

Chautarima raato gai chareko. Bolaum bhane taarda pai pareko.

(Near the stone bench, pasturing a red cow; Almost yelled out, but you are too far now.)

Yo mayalai bataima betiyo. Paani Khaani piyasai metiyo.

(I met my love on the road, burning hot. I was thirsty, but my dry throat I forgot.)

Notes on gathering these folksongs:

I labored many hours late into the night gathering these folksongs from locals as they sang in teashops and by kitchen fires. I wrote the lyrics down in transliterated script rather than in the script of Nepali, Hindu, and Sanskrit, which is called Devanagari:  आ ई ऊ ऌ ऎ ऑ

Later, I translated the lyrics into English and tried to devise ways to record the tunes. When I returned to America, some of these translations were published in the Journal of South Asian Literature.