Category: Translation

The Book of the Nishan Shaman 04

Previous instalments: 1, 2, 3.

geli gisureki seci angga juwame muterakv, jain jabufi gisureme banjinarakv oho

geli [more]
gisureki seci [(he) wanted to say]
angga [mouth]
juwame muterakv [couldn’t open]
jain [joint of the jaws] dict. form: jayan
jabufi [stiffened and]
gisureme [speaking, words]
banjinarakv oho [didn’t appear]

He wanted to say something more, but he couldn’t open his mouth. His jaws stiffened and no more words appeared. Continue reading The Book of the Nishan Shaman 04

The Book of the Nishan Shaman 03

This is the third installment of The Book of the Nisan Shaman (Nixan saman-i bithe). You can find the previous parts here: part 01, part 02. Thanks to Randy for correcting my English.  All suggestions kindly welcomed.

Geren aba i urse morin be dabkiyame yaburengge, hvdun hahi ofi dartai endende  gebungge aba abalara alin de isinafi.

geren [each]
aba-i urse [ hunters], aba-i [hunt] gen, urse [people]
morin-be [horses] acc
dabkiyame [whipping] dict. form: dabkime
yaburengge [riding]
hvdun [fast, quick]
hahi ofi [increased (the speed) rapidly]
dartai endende [at the moment, suddenly] dict. form: andande
gebungge [famous]
aba [hunt]
abalara [hunters]
alin-de [mountain]
isinafi [reached]

All the hunters rode fast whipping their horses to increase speed, and in no time they reached the mountain, which is famous among hunters. Continue reading The Book of the Nishan Shaman 03

The Book of the Nishan Shaman 02

This is the second part of Nixan saman-i bithe (the first part is here), and, at the same time, my first installment as an official author of the blog. After discussion with Randy I decided to change some things.  We minimalized grammatical explanations and gave more accurate glosses, similarly to what Randy did in his installment on Möllendorff.

And here is a couple of links:

Here you can find complete digital version of the manuscript, written by a Manchu called Dekdengge for Prof. Grebenshchikov in Vladivostok in 1913. Uploaded by Bucin (ambula baniha, Bucin agu!)

Here is  full text in romanization with Japanese glosses.

For those who can read Russian, here is a Russian translation. Continue reading The Book of the Nishan Shaman 02

The Book of the Nishan Shaman 01

The book of the Nisan Shaman, or nixan saman i bithe, is one of Shamanism’s most important documents.  It is the story of a shaman who brings a person back from the dead.

The following guest post is the first installment of a translation by Paweł Manowski, from Poland (“p” from comments on earlier posts).  I have only edited it slightly for consistency.

Continue reading The Book of the Nishan Shaman 01