Verses 1-4

Twenty four verses sung by Suleman “Añara” Jeme of Jilakunda the funeral of Jaan Baji in the town of Jirem in 1965. Each verse is followed by comments made by Añara and Kalilu Baji (my principle informant) after the sing. Throughout A. refers to Añara and K. to Kalilu. When not marked the text is given by Añara. (You can hear each verse by clicking on the audio controller at the head of each verse. You will need a plugin that can play a .mp3 audio file.)

Verses 1-4

BUÑ. 1. Añara Jeme II: 211-212 Buñansaη - Jirem (II-221-212)

a)	Ujamo mukuluje jiyegaj, numala Katúje you hear him hidden words small wrestler we all go K. bati Sinéndo home of S.	You hear him, hidden words (about) the small wrestler (whom you hear). Let’s go to Katúje at the home of Sinéndo (who is the small wrestler).
b)	Lonkay yan kufúle ban le kugonk, agálaaη long gun which they drag which not vine good man	Long gun that they drag. It is not a vine. Good man.
c)	Usabisab uwú kabasa, mukuluje you are questioned you transform mat hidden words	You are questioned (as a corpse), you transform (reincarnate) into a mat, hidden words.
d)	Aw pumandoor, manujaw suηa you will scold angrily then you go.	You scold, then you go.
e)	Kati Kajúnduho niwonkum ña. Those of K. I call now	Those of Kajúnduho I call now.
f)	Emikeloo (pumulo) buriη Jinie Jajibey bati slave his come out from since J.J. home of Atúmbuluka. A.	His slaves stretch all the way back to Jinie Jajibey at the home of Atúmbuluka.
g)	Fuwú bucíme, Jimúna, akan di wám. Whew, as sung small bull, he makes and noise	They (words) carry as a song. Small bull, talked about everywhere.
h)	Bu nare bo, ajanooray? How? he stops there he heard about	Why is he so well known?
i)	Baji, egundak elaañ bamal kumer. B. Adam’s apple becomes ring neck	Badji, his Adam’s apple becomes a throat necklace.

Remarks:

a.-d. refer to one man: Sinendo of Kátuje

Kalilu Badji’s (K.) remarks:

mukúluje, cf. Kakúluj = faire quleque chose en cachette. (To do something in hiding.) “Big words originating in hiding.

b. The vines are what are always dragged. The guns must be very long to compel someone to drag them.

c. (bu)sabisab, i.e. Buyihab (corpse) speaks angrily against mukúluje.

Añara Jeme’s (J.) remarks.

Bk V. 76. long gun which they dragged as if it were a vine. What did he do with has force (fíneaf), “dignity” … Because Sinéndo was a great man, his gun was a long gun (Dane gun). Whoever was to carry it: it was [a. - d. refer to one man, Sinéndo of Katúje.]

long and big. They would carry it but it was like dragging that they wuld be doing. He was able to carry it. He was a big freat man. At Suel, when they arrived there on the day of the circumcision …. But what he did has done, is over. The entire village of Suel came, found him and made fun of him (kagóten). When he carried (lifted up to shoot) the gun he gathered together many (shot at) and he fell them. Even Afúru (jds’s host at Katinoη), ask him and he will tell you about Sinéndo of Katúje, there in the Jándin quarter). A lot of man.

You know “mukúluje” (words which come out softly) because people when they speak they will talk quietly, mukúluje of the little wrestler, you will speak angrily and they you go. The people, when they speak words on the ground (in whispers) and then you are a man. What will you make so that you go? Won’t you speak angrily as ou go?

Compare verse lines: 11/f, 12/g, 21/a

e. K’s remarks:

kajúnduηo is an insult: He who walks all over everything - on chairs, on pots, etc. Does so to the oint of hurting himself.

f. Kurímak kan kusankenem kujajaw ‘fuwú fuwú’ - “The words that they speak go ‘fuwu fuwu.’” Words scattered behind speaker …. Others talk and talk about him while the speaker “s’en fiche” (ignores them). Words spoken behind someone “volent comme quelque chose chantée (flies as something sung); as the word “fooñ” as the wind.

Nen waf uke nukíme. “As something you sing.” Nakandiwám: nakankan di wám = di sancen fanfaη. “Speak a lot.”

A’s remarks (V:77)

He who is Kajúnduηo lives in Jirem …. Atúmbuluka, he also was a man who could shoot a gun. Words pass as a song (fuwú bukíme) and he who make noise. A person, he is going to do something and people speak to each other about him. Now others say: how is it people talk about him. (K. i.e. , strangers are surprised to see someone whom others always talk about.)

You will do something fú (talk) but the people will speak and they will say “how is I that he is talked about?”

Adam’s apple becomes a necklace …. Haven’t you seen a man with a big thick throat? Here like that of frogs.

Baji, he was from Kunjuηoor. His first name was Aun. He was a warrior who fought against the Manding. We go to Kunjuhoor to the home of Aun Baji. His Adam’s apple is like a necklace. He swallows shrapnet whole. (K. Kapénjembun “piece of a bullet.” … the part that breaks off after firing. Abuten amer … Kabuten “swallow something whole.” Faire de manière: Il faut être quelqu’un pour le faire … Does his thing, he must be someone to do that. ) Shrapnel: They shoot him with bulllets, he takes them and swallows them.

BUÑ. 2. Añara Jeme II: 213-214 Buñansah - Jirem (II-213-214)

a)	Takum jiwonoor mati wala kunínaku. Aníne Don’t you wonder about we men the A man upincorérit ban le bukanúmi. you pretty never thus not (his) doing.	Do not worry about we men. A man is never pretty and it is not his fault.
b)	Utúngunaw jiliba ajaanen nen kawonk ebéo short legged knife he tries out as call cow his	Short legged one gets along with his knife as (well as he does) with his cow’s call.
c)	Jirigooraj Fandiη kanocen nandi ko small noise maker F. to enter he is in the process of	Small noise maker, Fandiη, he is entering.
d)	Bulay napúren bo, júmpur ban let kunindoniη next year he comes out there python thus not first fruits	Next year he makes the python come out, and it is not for the first fruits (python food).
e)	Agajoora atey bunumbuη takula kuleefúm liar runs head down mourner diaper jindok mourner’s cloth	Liar runs with head down, as a mourner. Diaper for mourner’s cloth.
f)	Bugogoli nen mukum méle deep voiced as money ripe	Deep voiced as aged honey.
g)	Jirohum etey kawúaku kamanter bujeleη lively to run reincarnation to guess deciding place	Lively runner, the reincarnation is a guess at the deciding place.
h)	Jeju Bure, ebangal yoyu nen jireh jañao JB, initiates whisk is as forest bath area(?)	Jeju Bure, fly whisk is there as a sacred forest.

Remarks:

a. Kalilu Baji’s remarks (K): “Ne pensons pas, nous les hommes, car l’homme ne doit pas être joli sans ses moyens.” (Don’t think about it, we men, for man can not be pretty without his means). That is, a man must become handsome in order to have a wife (????) (Double negative: never pretty…nver your means, implies positive contrast: to be pretty … always by your means.

Añara Jeme’s (A) remarks:

V, 78-79: You a man, are never pretty and this is not by your doing. A man never goes to be divorce, he stays at his home. It is easy to cut the throat of an ugly man, as easy as that of a chicken. Even if your own doing … even if you are ugly you’ll stay in your home. A woman should be pretty for she goes in for divorce. Who is it who will leave his house because he is ugly? You will not hear of it. A woman, you will be able to tell her: “go, you are ugly,” because she does not live there.

(BUT: aníne akójim súm karámul nen jilool (11/d) “An ugly man is as easy to cut the throat as it is to cut a chicken’s.)

b. K’s remarks. Kajanen, “toss up and about something, as a knife.”

A’s remarks. (cf. V 1 typed insert) -janen given here has the sense of “try” (-liik), a gesture with knife is equivalent to the call of his cow. Melogy goes up and down, so does his knife. (Melody parallel to the gesture of the knife.) The word -jan said to come from -jam (to hear) and is used by Añara most in the phrase “bu nare bo ananooray, “how (is it that) he stops (is equal) there, be known.” That is: “why is it, how is it that he is celebrated?”

K. Aw jilibaaj jiya panujanoor, “tu t’entendras avec ton couteau.” (You will be heard by way of your knife.) He is known - thus spoken about, as is his cow’s call.

A. Short legged one strikes (fells) with a knife. He is known as his cow’s call. (K. The phrase insults and praises: brave but causes trouble.) The small man, who is just so high, who is no good. He would look there for people, he who is small. He throws the knife so that they talk to each other about him, as the call of his cow. (K. Ils parlent de lui comme lui, il parle de son boeuf. Ils le considerent comme une vache (??? JDS)) They talk of him as he talks of his cow. They consider him as a cow.)

V:80 Because everyone you hear of who bothers people (alúsulo), he is not a complete person. The tiny bad person he is able to “touch.” The tiny one, he will hear and touch so that the men will fight.

K. egorúley (cf. -gor, “to touch”) here in the sense of bothering others: faire de bêtises auprès des autres (do bad things to others): little people make the bêtises (bad things) so others will fight. He makes a bagarre (contratemps) and forces his kin who are “les vrais hommes” (the true men) to do the fighting.

Jinínaj panjijaw jilúsúl mambijigolum kunínak. “the little man will go and bother people so as to annoy the big men.”

c-d. K. He will make a python come out (i.e. ewú, reincarnate) and he is not the snake fruit (that attracts the snake). He does so by his proper means (on his own).

A. V:80 Fandiη the small noise maker is entering (cf. 22/e). The grave diggers are complicated (tangled: -gonoor) … The dig, the finish digging and then they make a tomb covering (jibaloora), they make an escape hole (opening) so that he will come out as do ghosts, and then he goes on from there.

K. jibalooray “unnoticed exit,” a secret door through which a person passes… he enters, but the grave digger fixes it so he can get out … not done for everyone.

e. A. V:1 (inset) The liar runs head down as does the mourner (running to a funeral). Kulefun (according to Aisetu, wife of K., the Sunjan varinat is kulef) is a cloth, rag, or even (in a modern context) a plastic sheet on which a bby I placed. Jindokaj is a cloth worn be old women at funerals. It is always an old cloth and has a dark color. It is worn around the waist and is all that she wears. The liar runs to betray as the mourner runs to wail. His (the liar’s) mouth should be tied with the baby sheet (diaper?) in the same way that the woman mourner should tie the cloth around her waist.

Correction (or rather, a different reading). The woman who takes the baby cloth to use for a jindok (mourning cloth) (Aisetu uses the term findook). This is amusing for the baby cloth would never by used. The jindok refers not just to the cloth used but to the manner of tieing it: as a loin cloth, through the legs and then around the waist. Today even the old women never tie the cloth in this manner when going to a funeral (ñikul). (cf. -kul: mukul “tears,” ekul “to cry”)

V:80 The liar runs head down in the manner of mourners. Grab his big mouth and place the loincloth (mourner’s cloth). Someone who lies, for when you trap him you will take the rag and tie up his mouth.

f. V:1 (inset). Deep voice which is good like aged honey. Cf. 12/d

g. V:1 (inset). bujeleη is where kati tentam (those of below) decided whether or not someone is to reincarnate.

h. V:81 Fly whisk which is like a sacred forest. Now you know the whisk with which we dance when we were circumcised? It is taboo as is a scred forest, as the small forest of the furámbenaf (shrine for inmarried women). The thing which they say is tabooed as is the sacred forest.

BUÑ. 3. Añara Jeme II: 216 Buñansaη - Jirem (II-216)

a)	Manjiyaben nen jikólikóli Thus you (pl) take as (if) you afraid	And you sing the chorus as if you were afraid.
b)	Muyul jimanjut kunarak kati iñe. Kulaalaañ You you know not women of now. They transform siganar (tape: sigalar), iñe kumamal be Tilibo. pied crows now they move on to “the East.” Daru bobu kufalúmak wo-o-o ejaw be Senegal. Little thing there old women wooooo go to S. Wamban? Be kakanoo uyamajut. why? go put on brassieres	You all you do not know the women of today. They have become crows and have now left for the “East.” And another tiny little thing there …. The old women go, woooooo, to Sénégal. Why? In order to wear brassieres.
c)	Imanjut urémpunaw utey kabuηo? I know not one with little hair you run to be braided	I do not know why the one with little hair runs to have it braided.
d)	Ajaaneni nen kawonk ebéo. He is known as call cow his	He is known as his cow’s call.
e)	Jirigooraje Fandiη kanoken nan di ko little noise make F. to enter he is doing	Fandih, little noise maker is entering.
f)	Bu narebo ajanooray? How he stops there he known about	How is it that he is kown?

Remarks:

a. Añara: V:1 So you sing as if you were afraid. When you are singing and you are afraid of something you won’t sing clearly. But if you sing without fear then you’ll sing well. (cf. 6/b)

b. Kalilu: siganar (pied crows): They make the va et vien (come and go) from here to Sénégal. They leave at the beginning of the rains so as to go to St. Louis area “to eat fish” and return for the peanuts in November. dar, “tiny other thing.” Pejorative when applied, as here, to people. Fusek (big woman) is better than risek (tiny woman). [The use of the class ri/di is confined mainly to the Jilakunda area. Ñankiit also] “Toute petite chose de rien de toute” (Little thing of no value) Associates the kafalúmak (old women) with “a little thing.” This is considered an insult: Big person, little thing.

c. A. V:86 Someone with little hair spreadit out (and is particular) in having it dressed. Kabuho: complicated process - wash hair, thenoil it, then bunches of hair are threaded bit by bit. Takes about four hours to do and is expensive (cost of oil, etc.). cf. 18/b

d. cf. Añara 2/b

e. cf. Añara 2/e

f. cf. Añara 1/g

Center of this verse is b-c which is a general insult of women who have gone away (during the working period, i.e. the rains) to eat better and who come back only for the easy season. Comment on looseness of women. K. on line b. remarked: what could an old woman do with a bra, considering their pendulous and shrunkened breasts. Kilak kulolo, “breasts have fallen.” …. as Aba told us.

BUÑ. 4. Añara Jeme : 217-218 Buñansaη - Jirem (II-217-218)

a)	Ujama akúmpajaη sikúmpi ujuk non kalew. We all see who has long neck they cut you look you say sapling	We hear of one with a long neck. They cut, you look and say “sapling.”
b)	Ajeleh, yeten manbujam o, Suel, Jakútaju A. listen and you’ll hear him (of) S. big robber bati Bakuntah. Emitey eliboor nañub di kañon home of B. lightening flash he squats on veranda kayéten fuluηut añil fati ebé di fono korom jálo listen snore child of cow it is korooom wow!	Ajeleh, listen and you will hear him, of Suel, big thief at the home of Bakuntah. Lightening flashes and he squats on the veranda listening for the child’s snore. It is that of the cow, koroooom! Wow!
c)	Araba, o nin bu nare bo ajanooray? A. he as how? he stops there he well known?	Araba, how is it that he is so well known?
d)	Jilát, ubuj nabaj yunkul you overpower you kill he has new (one)	You overpower and kill, but he has a new one.
e)	Fuñ di eñab etúmb karamba di laañ liver with elephant it creates forest and becomes mukum kanímah Jiboñimbaje honey sweet Graceful dancer	Elephant’s liver creates a forest and it becomes sweet honey. Graceful dancer.
f)	Jifan, numálenkena nen di sansan moma small elder we are dexterous as in enclosure thus	Little elder, we are exceptional as though in an enclosure.
g)	Bali, sansan ola bulol buri B., enclosure our termites have eaten.	Bali, our enclosure was eaten by termites

Remarks:

a. K. ekump, “cut a branch of a tree,” referring to someone with neck like tree without branches … sikumpi, “they are cut.” Neck long, as two such branches. bulew, a type of hardwood good for charcoal.

A. V:85 Long necked one of two necks.

b. A. V:85 snore: of a cow, loroη, of a child, jegum. Long neck, a neck which is long, his neck is cut into two pieces, it is this that they call “long neck one.” (cf. also 12/b). They (sticks) are cut two times, which are cut and you clap (jilew). cf. 6/h, 14/e-f.

c. cf. 1/g

d. A. Referring to jilát ubuj, you strike down, you kill …. -lát, strike down tall and beg person, overpower. You overpower and kill yet he has a new (soul, yutey). The foreleg breaks, he has a new one. It breaks, the foreleg breaks, no this is the praise which they say “the foreleg breaks and he has a new one.”

e. Jiboñimbaje: the manner of a good dancer who makes up and down movement with his shoulder. Jiboñi (short form of), if he dies one has to inquire as to the cause of his death: buyiηab busabisab … jibañi (the coprse is questioned) (cf. 11/f for another interpretation)

f. You (plural) resound (with the voice) and we do brilliantly (kamálanken, “faire quelque chose beaucoup plus bien” [do somthing much better]) We speak well as if we were in a stockade (enclosure). Let’s not speak as if we were in the bush singing. We speak well as if we were in an enclosure. In the bush voices go every which way.

g. We are miserable for the temites eat out our stockade. When the people die and one side (of a family) is finished … the roofs, what will eat them? Termites.

K. II:218 Sansan, Manding word equivalent to Jóola esukey (?) Palisade for defense. Strong enclosre to which one retreats in war. In center is a hole where one places baggage, children, wives after they have been routed out from their homes. Here (according to K.) Añara equates the enumy to the termites.. doesn’t want to refer to them as people. (This des not seem to be borne out by A. above.