The Song of Leaving

A well-known work in classical mërèchi, which has been extensively studied.

The text

níltë pëdélamnö

délap'da míri,
lóp'a pëdélam'da.
édla, ëlérü,
hró riba d'ésö'fa,

hró riv ësóp'fa?

kímo pëfóram'fa,
làtemi ùngë
élaten p'àssim'r,
kímo pëfóram.

In the reformed orthography:

nílte pedélamno

délapda míri,
lópa pedélamda.
édla, eléru,
rhó ríba désofa,

rhó rív esópfa?

kímo pefóramfa,
látEmi Únge
élatEn pássimr,
kímo pefóram.

Interlinear text

níltë	pë-	déla	-m	-nö
song	ACT. PT	leave	ACT. PT	-of
song	of leaving

déla	-p	-da	míri,
leave	PRES.	2ND PS	again
you leave			again,

ló	-p	-a	pë-	déla	-m	-da.
watch	PRES.	1ST PS	ACT. PT	leave	ACT. PT	2ND PS
I watch			you leaving.

édla,	ëlérü,
goodbye,	farewell,

hró	riba	d-	ésö	-fa,
why	thus	should	COP.	1ST PP
why	should we be thus,

hró	riv	ësó	-p	-fa?
why	always	COP.	PRES.	1ST PP
why	always	are we?

kímö	pë-	fóra	-m	-fa,
forever	ACT. PT	part	ACT. PT	1ST PP
forever	are we parting,

làtem	-i	ùn	gë
tree	-like	3RD PS INAN.	POSS.
like a tree		its

élat	-en	p-	àss	-im	-r,
leaf	PL.	ACT. PT	lose	ACT. PT	3RD PS
leaves		losing,

kímö	pë-	fóra	-m.
forever	ACT. PT	part	ACT. PT
forever	parting.

Conclusions

This text may well represent the first appearance in the corpus of the later form of the active participle (and sometimes gerund), the circumfix pë...im (shortened to p...m in the presence of vowels). Experts are divided on whether this text or the chant of goddesses, àn tylchàn, which also uses this form, came first.

The pë...im form exhibits remarkable flexibility, being used in some circumstances as a gerund (cf. níltë pëdélamnö, in which the gerund takes the genitive marker), in others as an active participle (kímö pëfóram), and in yet others as the imperfective of the verb, taking a pronomial suffix as if it were a verb form (pëfóram'fa).

Words which first appear in this text:

• míri, "again"
• édla, "goodbye"
• ëlérü, "goodbye" in Dilendran (neighboring language of which little is known)
• hró, "why"
• riba, "thus"
• riv, "always"
• kímo, "forever"
• possibly àss, "to lose"

We also note that this text uses the obligative mood prefix -d, as first set forth in the early classical verb tense documents, but without the ending -p as demonstrated there.

Back to merechi page
Back to conlangs page

Last updated: 4/22/2002