From the Moment We Came Apart ~ The Austronesian Language under the Southern Cross從分手的那一刻起~南十字星下的南島語

"Came Apart"

The moment,

Only tears in the mata,^[1]

The ima ^[2]held on the stone adz,

And the warmth remained.

 
In your eyes there was an island went through continental drift.

In my hands there was a mountain chiseled and layered in the ocean.

 
You brought your uniqie *bet'ay^[3],
Got on *paraqu^[4],
*qan'ud ^[5]away.

From that moment,
We live apart,
Ocean, mountain,
And Took on different journeys.

"You Are Already Gone Far"
You said you wanted to find your own island
To pick the golden color rice ears,
Grain by grain,
to put into your glazed red vase,
to put into lumbung^[6] of the Southern Cross,
to become a vocabulary sharing the same origin.

The wavering canoe
Harnessed with a strong outrigger
Took away the emerald color Fongtian Jade*^[7],
Paddled to the azure color island,
And Traveled through the milky ways.

Where anchor dropped, Te Punga,^[8]
Is the bay that the Southern Cross built,
A new paradise for dreams ashore.

"I Am Still Staying Here"
Along ludun^[9],
I created a path decorated with words.
tun-lundun-av (let’s go to the mountains)
tun-luden (to the high mountains)
na-tun-ludun ata （we are about to start our journey to the mountains）
tuna ludun（arriving the mountain top）
muhai ludun （walking on the ridge）
muhai ludun-in（over the ridge）
It twirled and crossed like the mountains,
Coiled toward the peak.

Following the breathing sound coming from the valley,
I looked down, the sailing wake was already far gone.
I looked up, the star that guided you.

"We Suffer Together"
The ways were distinguished by sun, moon, and stars.
The ways were guided by winds and currents.
We go to high and steep mountains.
We sail through great winds and waves.

Under the stars and stripes, twelve rays of light, and blades of the sun,
The popping sound of bikinis,
Cut foreign words, ni-hao (你好)^[10], bonjour, Konnichiwa (こんにちは)^[11],
on the flag where Union Jack and four stars are.
The mind is flustering like the flag.

HMS Discovery rode on the wave of colonialism,
To the worship of a giant iron boat.
While leaving, it robbed the sacred taboo^[12] from the warriors’ mouths,
And took away the forbidden words.

"A Gaze"
A thousand years of migration, a thousand miles of distance, a thousand kind of languages
Spilled around in thousands of islands.

Depressing, lonely Moai^[13],
Could you look upon the north with your mata,
To take up ima that spilled on different islands,
To gaze into the syllables that flows through languages.

Let’s rebuild the outrigger canoe,
With the faded glory, and whispering voices,
Toward the star light to explore again,
Tagging the wind to break the waves again,
And Speak of the consonant from the island of south wind.

Translated by Ying-Che Chen

^[1] mata: Bunun language. It means eyes, a cognate to Austronesian languages.

^[2] ima: Bunun language. It means hands, also a cognate to Austronesian languages.

^[3] *bet'ay: reconstructed Proto-Austronesian language. It means oar.

^[4] *paraq: reconstructed Proto-Austronesia language. It means boat.

^[5] *qan'ud: reconstructed Proto-Austronesia language. It means drifting.

^[6] lumbung: Javanese people called the Southern Cross “lumbung.”It means granary because the shape of the stars looks like a farm shed.

^[7] A nephrite mineral often found in Fongtian, a region of Hualien, Taiwan. Also called, Taiwan Jade.

^[8] Maori language, it means the Southern Cross. It was believed to be where the canoe (the milky way) drops its anchor. The indicator is the anchor cable.

^[9] Bunun language, it means mountain.

^[10] Ni-hao: a typical Mandarin Chinese greeting.

^[11] Konnichiwa: a typical Japanese greeting.

^[12] taboo: a foreign word in English. It comes from“ta-bu”an aboriginal language of a small pacific island, means sacred.

^[13] Moai: the stone carved giant human figure on Easter Island.