NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

For the past few months my Saturday morning Chamoru coffee shop classes have been structured around two activities. Each class begins with the translation of a Chamoru song into English. Usually the students get to the pick the particular song, or at least the type of song. Second, we go through a longer narrative, sometimes a story, a speech or a poem in Chamoru and also spend time translating it and practicing reading it.

As a result of this, I've been translating lots of Chamoru songs lately. When I first started learning Chamoru, gi minagahet, I was terrible at transcribing Chamoru songs. I hadn't grown up with the ear for hearing or catching Chamoru and so my transcriptions of songs were often wildly inaccurate. For the first few years I had people both politely and impolitely correct my attempts at transcription and then translation. My ear for Chamoru has gotten better, but I still struggle sometimes with particular artists who may have their own flair for pronunciatio…

Guaha meggai na tinilaika gi på'go na såkkan. Meggai nuebu na siniente-ku ya guaha na biahi kulang machuchuda' enao siha gi sanhalom-hu. Fihu anggen taiguenao yu', ya-hu sumotta sina gi tinge'-hu, kolo'lo'ña betsu pat po'ema siha. 

Todu i tinige'-hu guini put guinaiya. Sa' ma'pos un eståba na guinaiya yan manaliligao yu' nuebu. 

Estague i betsu-hu sina, ni' hu tuge' gi halacha na tiempo. 

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Mungga masukne yu' Nåna
na ti hu na'funhåyan i tarehå-hu
Sukne si Yu'os
Sa' guiya muna'fanhuyong
Ayu na palao'an

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Tumutunok i pilan
Lao olahan moon
Na mana'påra i tininok-ña
Ya ti hu fåkpo'
Este linangitan na råtu
Nai hågu gi tinektok-hu

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I mangga
gi hilo'-mu
gi trongko
achamames
yan i labios-mu

I puti'on siha
gi langhet
gi hilo'-mu
manachagefpågo
yan i matå-mu

I pilan
gi hilo'-mu
gof takhilo'
achafinu
yan i fasu-mu

Maila mågi nuebu na guinaiyå-ku
Gi hilo' un tåsi bula …

On Facebook I have a regular informal series titled "Adventures in Chamorro." It ranges from stories of speaking Chamorro with my kids, protests, decolonization activism and also teaching Chamorro at UOG. I have not been on a hike in quite a while and so here are two stories dealing with hiking and my students at UOG.

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Adventures in Chamorro #234: For my Chamorro language classes I often have them write up some simple love poetry. I normally begin those assignments by talking about most elderly Chamorros refer to as traditional Chamorro courtship rituals. As Spanish Catholic influence made it very difficult for young unmarried men and women to interact with each other romantically, so much of the courtship happened in secret or through intermediaries known as "chule'guagua'" or "basket carriers." It was a time of early-morning meetings down by the riverbank, sneaking away to the blindspots behind churches or nights f…

Lumi’of yu’ gi tasi Tahdong, tahdongña ki hu hongge Mañodda’ yu’ tahgong Gi sen manengheng na unai Annai hu chule’ gui’ hulo’ para i sakmån-hu Hu pega gui’ kontra i talanga’-hu I fetgon pinachå-ña mamesña ki hu hongge Ya hu hungok Kumunananaf hulo’ i kantå-mu A’gangña ki i hesguan binibon tåsi Tinektoktok ni’ pappa’ påkyo’ Ya hu tungo’ na gaisiente este na kånta Tahdongña ki hu hongge
Dumesnik hao gi me’nå-hu Ma’lakña ki i langhet Mañiñila ni’ mit chålan na puti’on
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I dove into the ocean Deep, deeper than I believed I found a shell In the freezing cold sand And when I took it back up to my canoe I placed it against my ear The wet touch sweeter than I believed And I heard Your song crawling up Louder than the jealous fury of the ocean Embraced by the wings of a storm And I know that this song has feeling Deeper than I believed
You appeared before me Brighter than the sky Illuminated by a thousand thousand stars

INDEPENDENT GUÅHAN HOLDS ITS FEBRUARY GENERAL ASSEMBLY MEETING
Will discuss the importance of environmental stewardship under the theme of “Hu Guaiya iya Guåhan.”
Independent Guåhan invites the public to its monthly General Assembly (GA) meeting on Thursday, February 23rd from 6 – 7:30 pm at the Main Pavilion of the Chamorro Village in Hagåtña. The theme for this GA is “Hu Guaiya Iya Guåhan” and will focus on efforts to encourage environmental stewardship through the revitalization of Chamorro values.
The Inifresi outlines the six core elements that we must protect and defend in order to sustain and prosper as a community. This month’s GA will focus on the importance of tåno’ (land) and how an independent Guåhan can help protect this essential element of life. Over the past century, the Chamorro relationship to land has changed dramatically, primarily because of postwar displacement and changes in Guam’s economy. Land has moved from being something to which Chamorros felt intimately co…

Several years ago this poem was used in the Inacha'igen Fino' CHamoru at the University of Guam as part of the poetry recitation category. This is a Middle School category where students have to memorize and then recite a poem written in the Chamorro language. I was honored that year when the other Chamorro teachers, who were and continue to be far more versed than I am in the Chamorro language, asked me if I would be so kind as to submit something. I had written this poem years earlier, while I was in grad school and working my way through a few books by Indian poets and authors such as Rabindranath Tagore.

At that point I was fluent in Chamorro, but constantly feeling alone in the language as I was staying in San Diego and couldn't always make it out to the Guam Club in National City for the senior lunches or the nobenas. During that period I ended up translating hundreds of poems and songs, some of which you can find archived on this blog, in an effort to keep my mind …

Suette Yu’
Tumotohge gi me’nan i fanhalum’an i ante-ku Mames i linamlamlam i magagu-ña I pekkåt-ña siha muna’fakmåta yu’ Ya i gaige-ña muna’figan gi sanhalom-hu Un ti chaguayan na guafi
Anai humålom gui’ Ya ha faloffåni yu’ Malingu i tano’ gi papa’-hu Sa’ ha guaiya yu’ Achokka’ ti må’gas yan matua yu’ Tåya’ lulok oru na potseras para i kannai-ña Ya i dibi-hu taihinekkok Ha atanñaihon yu’ gi hinanao-ña Ya ha chatgeñaihon yu’ Ya hu li’e’ i semnak uma’atok gi chinalek-ña

Ginen i blog "The Islander." Estague i palabras-ña i kantan KC Leon Guerrero, i na'ån-ña "Nangga Yu'." Gof ya-hu ayu na blog, hu diseseha na i dueñu para u na'lå'la' gui' ta'lo, sa' gof maolek na hinekka para palabras kantan Chamorro.

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Nangga Yu' Este ta'lo ginen as KC i kanta Nangga yu'

http://youtu.be/97CNdG6faO0

Kirida bai hu mapressu pago- Darling they're arresting me today
Sa hu a punta i pakikku gi tinderu- Because I put the gun to the store owner
Lao ayu neni chinileku- Because baby I did it
ni aniyu ilekmu mas yamu- for the ring you said you liked

Munga umasagua kirida nangga yu'- Don't marry darling wait for me
Nangga yu' sa ti apman yu guatu- Wait for me I'll be back soon
Nangga yu sa ti apman bai hu fatto- Wait for me because I'll come back soon

Makonne yu' gi gima para Hagatna-They took me from my home to Hagatna
Ha godde neni ete i dos kannaihu-They took my took ha…

Diagnosis Guinaiya by Michael Lujan Bevacqua
I flip through the untouched yellowed pages of a phonebook where photographs of smirking physicians remind me that there is no cure for what I feel.
Symptom 1, the itching, restless dancing of fingers hovering above a keyboard, agonizing over an email to you. When I glance away, they audaciously type, “tåya’ åmot para guinaiya.”
I spend sleep-starved nights tabbing page after virtual page from malware infected medical sites, each of which is sponsored by the fact that there is no cure for what I am feeling right now.
Symptom 2, my poor eye, crooked and scratched, sprained in its socket from straining to watch you from afar. As my eyes fail in frustration, the normally invisible detritus of the world’s afterglow mimes the plot of the most recent installment of my life, “Tåya’ åmot para guinaiya”
I Whatsapp friends and foes photos of my symptom-sick form, hoping for some positive prognosis, but each autocorrected response reminds me that t…

Para si Isa
Despensa yu’ Guaiyayon na Nanå-hu Ti hu na’funhåyan i che’cho’-hu gi gima’ Siña un sukne Si Yu’us Kabåles Gui’ hunggan Lao kana’ ha puno’ yu’ ni’ guinaiya Anai ha få’tinas ayu na låhi

Maloffan yu' gi trongko gi hatdin-mu
Gof agaga' unu na maisa na tinekcha'
Gi mas yahululu' na ramas
Sen takhilo' gui' ya i mammamamfe'
Ti ma li'e'e'
Umangglo i labios-hu
Ai mohon na hu taña' i mames-ña

This version of the classic Chamorro legend comes courtesy of the Chamorro Studies Division of the Guam Department of Education:

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Puntan Dos Amåntes
Åntes na tiempo giya Hagåtña, guaha un sotterita ni’ gof bunita ya todu ha’ gumaiya. Malago’ si nanå-ña yan tatå-ña na siha u inayeki un rikon taotao para asagua-ña.
Lini’e i sotterita ni’ un sindalon Españot ya malago’ na u inasagua. Ha ufresi i sainå-ña meggai na salåppe’. Sigi kumåti i sotterita annai ma sangåni na ayu na taotao para asagua-ña.
Duru sumospiros i sotterita. Tåya’ mas guinaiyå-ña na i lahen Chamorro ni’ sumåsaga gi sengsong. Sinangani as tatå-ña para u maleffa ni’ lahen Chamorro sa’ popble. Tinago’ as nanå-ña na u fanosge sa’ agupa’ ha’ para u asagua. Esta ma disidi na para u asagua yan i sindålun Españot.
Annai maigo’ i dos saina, malågu i sotterita yan i guinaiyå-ña para u attok gi liyang giya Tomhom.
Pumåra i dos un råtu gi halomtåno’ para u deskånsa sa’ mampos yayas. Ginen i chagogo’ ma hungok i es…

When I hear people discuss nowadays their connections to i manmofo'na or Ancient Chamorros, it is always interesting to see their connections and how they express their similarity, their fidelity or their disaffection. There are things that we can identify as coming from ancient times up until today. Some of them are abstract, coming from the nebulous realm of values and ideas. Others are rooted in the land and those things which remain despite things appearing to be so drastically different. 
When people want to draw affinity to those ancient ancestors it is rarely a reciprocal game. People will take up things that fit within their lives today, often times things which are incredibly simple or easy to integrate or provide verbal support for, but actually have little affect on their lives. It is common in all cultures to speak on behalf of our ancestors, to speak to them. But when people praise and pay homage to them it makes me wonder what their responses would be? Would they be h…

This year for the Inachaigen Fino' CHamoru or Chamorro Language Competition we tried out a new category, Kantan Chamorrita. This style is something unfamiliar to most on Guam today, but was an integral, constant and always oppan part of Chamorro life before the war and even for a few years afterwards. Kantan Chamorrita or Chamorrita refers to a style of social improvisational singing. A verse is started with a familiar tune, and another takes up the song by adding on a verse of their own. Each verse is supposed to be four lines. The tune is simple and doesn't move to fast, but each singer is expected to rhyme the last part of the 2nd and 4th line.

In the days before radio was commonplace and stereos, walkmans or iPods existed, this was how people filled the gaps in the air and in time. Singing familiar songs, but making up your own songs with others was something you did while fishing, weaving, farming, partying and so on. But as audio distractions and diversions became easie…

One of my favorite poems is The Divine Comedy by Dante. It contains three sections, Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradisio. They chronicle the tale of someone closely based on the author himself who travels into the bowels of the world, through hell, up to purgatory and finally up into the heavens. He meets a wide range of historical figures along the way and also people from his own time. In one way The Divine Comedy is similar to the "burn book" from the movie Mean Girls. Dante fills his version of hell with all those who hates and can't stand, devising tortures and torments for them. People who wronged him, got in his way, whom he didn't agree with, all end up in one of the suffering circles. 
Inferno is generally the most favorite of the three parts because of the vivid and brutal imagery that Dante uses to portray the punishment of sinners. Their is always some irony and some tragedy to where they end up and how they suffer given the sins that put them there. My fav…

On Saturday, my special projects class "The Uprising at Atate" traveled to Malesso' in the South to take pictures of the two memorials at Tinta and Faha. Malesso' has the most notorious "village" story of the entire war. Despite being far away from the centers of Japanese power, by the end of the war it is the site of two massacres (Tinta and Faha) and one uprising (Atate). For this research project we have been studying why the massacres sites, which are zones filled with trauma and victimization have become so important in WWII memorialization, while Atate, a space where Chamorros fought back and killed their Japanese captors holds little to no significance over how people see the Tiempon Chapones tale unfolding.

Finding the exact location where the uprising at Atate took place has proven difficult, as those who have been there are generally too old to travel there, and other know the general area and can point at it from afar in a way which is attemptin…

When I read the short story, "The Sun, The Moon, the Stars" by Junot Diaz, he had several lovely passages, and on the advice of my male' Victoria Leon Guerrero I used to use it when I would teach composition at the University of Guam. There is one moment towards the end where the narrator talks about when one reaches the end of one relationship it brings you back to the beginning. You see the first moments in a color that was more vivid than when you actually experienced them. That is the sign that a relationship is coming to an end, like when the brain starts to shut down and it is gasping for life, the another moment after the next and it fills the abyss of your mind with a maelstrom of desperate exploding stars. There is an obvious poetry and symmetry to this, but I haven't really felt it to be true.

Each time I have come to the end of a relationship, or even like I do now, where I can see the end ahead like a depressing oasis impervious to this rag…