Thread by @SAHeritagePubs

When our translation team came across verses of poetry or song, the challenge of rendering them in English was so much greater than with the histories and recipes and other plain speech in the rest of the #AncestralVoices collection.
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While these verses sometimes contain #LostWords or Lost Meanings, they are different from yesterday’s examples. They are poetic, evocative, and complex.
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In some cases, the translators have preferred to leave the phrases as they were written, believing that translating them would be too difficult or might lose something of the original sense.
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Today we’re asking you to read some beautiful poetry written in Sesotho, isiXhosa and Xitsonga and offer your translation, even of just one phrase, for those not lucky enough to know your language.
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Suthu 454: ‘Bahakane of Bochuana’, written in #Sesotho in 1940.

“This is how Mokguwane used to clan-praise himself:
‘Ramalebane wa naka la tshukudu.
Hape ke maila-ho-kgotlwa,
ke kgobotlela masisi,
ha ke tshabe letlhaku (ntlo) la motswetswe’.”
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Spezi 95: ‘Hlubi History’, written in #isiXhosa in 1938.

“These are the praises of the amaHlubi:
‘UMafu kaMashiyi
inkosi yamaHlubi
imbabala kaMashiyi
noDlomo Mashiyi Mahle
anjengawe nyamazana..."
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"AmaHlubi amhle amazipho yayimnyama ngokuqwayana.
Mdindonopho nzala yenkomo zikamafu mgogodlana wondeleni usenga indlezani ingentole wena uzalwa yintombi yaseSwazini’.”
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Kamela 414: ‘Agriculture, Fishing, and Industries among the Vatsonga of Spelonken’, #Xitsonga, 1930s.

“There is praise song for millet, as they did not reap it every year. This is how it goes: ‘Mabulukuxani ndzi na ku dlamu dlamu, ndzo ku xelu-xelu’. (N’wa Mandlati)”
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Our Languages are our Heritage. Help us find and revive the Lost Words, together with @SALexiUnits

Go to saheritagepublishers.co.za/ancestral-voic… to subscribe and read the originals.
Go to sanlu.africa to explore the many dictionaries on offer in all 11 official languages.
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