NEW YEAR'S SONG

From Saipan, we get our one and only traditional Chamorro New Year's song.

Ta fan magof todos / mientras man lålå'la' hit

ta nå'e mit gråsias / i muna' fanhuyong hit.

Esta måtto i nuebo / na såkkan ni para hita

ta propone de nuebo / umarekla i ha'ani-ta.

Ta fan magof todos...

(Let us all rejoice while we are still living

let's give a thousand thanks to the one who created us.

The New Year has come already to us,

let us propose once again to reform our lives.)

Jesus Yu'us-måme / gi nuebo na såkkan

gai'ase' nu hame / apåtta i daño.

Nå'e nu i deskånso / i man gaige esta gi naftan

ya an guåha sea kåso måtai na såkkan.

(Jesus, our God, in the New Year

have mercy on us, remove what is harmful.

Give rest to those already in the grave

and on those who may die this year.)

Ta fan magof todos...

Fan adesea de nuebo / ginen i korason-miyo

felis na åño nuebo / todo i ha'ånen-miyo.

(Wish each other once again from your hearts

a Happy New Year all your lives.)

Ta fan magof todos...

THE GERMAN AND RUSSIAN ORIGINALS

The Saipan song is based on two different European songs blended together.

Saipan's Catholic missionaries from 1907 to 1919 were German Capuchin friars, who more than likely had a hand in composing Ta Fan Magof Todos, basing the first part of the song on a German one they knew so well.

The German song is called Freut Euch des Lebens, which can be translated "Enjoy Life." This song goes all the way back to the 1790s! It's a song about enjoying the goodness of life while we still have it. As one line of the German song goes, to "pluck the rose before it wilts."

The short part concerning praying for the dead comes from a Russian hymn going back to the 1830s which was picked up by British hymnologists and given English lyrics and the title God, the Omnipotent.

Si Yu'us ma'åse' to Guam's premier hymnologist

LAWRENCE BORJA

for finding these originals.