Neither Here nor There

This is a general appeal to anyone who knows a little bit of Kunwinjku, even just the basics. And it’s no use hiding, I know you exist. My question is: what are the nominal roots for ‘here’ and ‘there’?

I ask because the album I wrote about last week, Wurrurrumi Kun-Borrk, which jointly won the Northern Land Council’s 2007 Traditional Music Award (and can be bought online, by the way), includes extensive cultural and linguistic notes, such as the lyrics in Kunwinjku/Kuninjku¹ and their rough English translations. However, as I have been reading through the lyrics and translations several times while listening to it, I’ve noticed a small discrepancy.

Konda is translated in a few instances as ‘here’, ‘this way’ or roughly anything to do with the deictic centre, while kure is given as ‘there’, ‘that side’, etc. For instance:

Konda nuk ngandi-bawong
They have deserted me (I suspect this is literally ‘they have left me here’)

Kure karri-re
Let’s all go over there

But in other songs, konda and kure are translated as ‘there’ and ‘here’ respectively, exactly the opposite.

Kure-beh kam-re konda-beh ka-re
She comes and goes

Kurebeh yi-kolkmen kondabeh nga-kolkmen
You chop (with your axe) on this side and I’ll chop the other side

I don’t intend to criticise this album in the slightest, I think it’s a brilliant production, not only musically, but also culturally and linguistically. And I’m not just saying that because the producer is my boss, I really do like it. Murray Garde has done an excellent job with the cultural notes that accompany each song, which make listening to this album and reading the lyrics and the cultural background to each song a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Furthermore, Djimarr’s singing is almost transcendent, and the rhythm and metre of the clapsticks is quite metronomic (as even an innocent bystander remarked to me on the bus). I really don’t want to assume any mistakes have been made here, so I’ll allow for the possibility that Kunwinjku has some quirky deictic referentiality going on.

So, any ideas?

¹I’m not sure of the difference exactly. The notes in the CD’s front-matter suggest that Eastern Kunwinjku is the ‘language’ as such, and Kuninjku, also the name of Djimarr’s clan, is his particular lect.

2 Responses to “ Neither Here nor There ”

Comments:

Murray Garde says:
September 3rd, 2007 at 4:44 pm

Translation of poetry is a completely different exercise to glossing words for the purpose of satisfying linguistic analysis, obviously. So-called ‘literal’ translations in the English text would often sound ugly. Part of the job of the translator is to give a sense of the poetic beauty of the original text.

Djimarr is as the CD notes state (page 2), a member of the Kurulk clan. He speaks the Kuninjku language (no ‘w’) which is sometimes referred to by linguists/anthropologists as ‘Eastern Kunwinjku’ as many non-Aboriginal people are familiar with the “Gunwinggu” language in so many of Ronald and Catherine Berndts’ publications. Today linguists use the collective name Bininj Kunwok (or Gunwok) for the 6 or so differently named but mutually intelligible varieties spoken in the region (see Nicholas Evans’ grammar of Bininj Gunwok, 2003).

Konda generally means ‘here’, kure ‘there, on, near, at, in’. Kure-beh kam-re, konda-beh ka-re ‘from there she comes, from here she goes’. It just sounds a bit clumsy to give that translation in English I thought. So you can see that the meanings are not at all the opposite as you suggest for that example. In the final example you give about the chopping however, you have made an incisive observation. Yes, there is a mistake. The English translation should read ‘You chop from THAT side, I’ll chop from THIS side’. Very well done indeed for picking that up. I’m pleased to know the notes are being read with some serious attention. Djimarr will be pleased also. I’m glad you are enjoying the recording and thanks for the kind comments.
Murray Garde

Jangari says:
September 3rd, 2007 at 5:02 pm

Thanks for the response, Murray.

Yes, I can imagine that providing faithful translations of poetry/song while preserving its aesthetic is a very difficult job.

I was also going to assume that a more literal translation for the third would have been ‘she goes and she comes’ but was changed to ‘she comes and she goes’ as it is more common as an idiom in English, but I didn’t suspect that it would have been ‘from there she comes’, which makes perfect sense now. In any case, I got rid of that paragraph before publishing.

Please don’t think I was being critical at all, I found it very interesting to read through the lyrics and get a very tenuous sense of the grammar. I couldn’t help but draw some obvious parallels with Wagiman, of which there are plenty. And in doing so, I got involved enough to pick up on what is really just a superficial typo.

I’ll say again, excellent production, and congratulations to Kevin et al. for the award.