Linda Poboto, Part 2

Text and Translation

Naya kureza kideza liye ira. Liye tene satas dimidimi eka. Liye tene satas piŋino, govogovo bavasano.

Liya nadu evi, “Ŋaŋitohi. Govogovo koyonen ŋaŋitohi. Lidu gehevanen ŋaŋinahi.” Linda sorodo erena sarape baŋibaŋi.

They take me across thorns and rocks. They (the thorns and rocks) hit all of my body. I feel pain on all of my body and all kinds of bad.

I say to them, “You could stop. You could stop doing all these kinds of things. You could start to be good to me.” But the spirits do not listen to my words.

Interlinear and Explanation

Naya kureza kideza liye ira.

They take me across thorns and rocks.

Or, I am made to go (non-volitionally) by them across thorns and rocks.

Liye tene satas dimidimi eka.

They (the thorns and rocks) hit all of my body.

Liye tene satas piŋino, govogovo bavasano.

I feel pain on all of my body and all kinds of bad.

Here’s another pair: basa ‘bad’ and bavasa ‘badness’.

Liya nadu evi, “Ŋaŋitohi.

I say to them, “You could stop.

Our narrator is being polite and using indirect or polite commands here and in the following sentences.

Govogovo koyonen ŋaŋitohi.

You could stop doing all these kinds of things.

Lidu gehevanen ŋaŋinahi.”

You could start to be good to me.”

Here we have the noun geheva formed from the adjective gehe and the nominalizer -va. Mostly because the partially reduplicated form of gehe would be gehehe and that just didn’t sound right.

Linda sorodo erena sarape baŋibaŋi.

But the spirits do not listen to my words.

Generally one hears something with the construction A sara=s X=no. But one can listen for something, too, with X=du A sara=ra. This works for other senses as well.