KÅNTAN CHAMORRITA

Ai pobre kilisyåno!

Ma na' chispas sin pinto'-ña.

Ya ma sodda' gi bodega

na ha sasaosao lago'-ña.

(Oh poor person!

They made him/her disappear against his/her will.

And they found him/her in the basement

wiping away his/her tears.)

I have no idea what made the poor guy/gal run and cry.

But the verse is somewhat sympathetic, somewhat teasing.

NOTES

Pobre. This is Spanish, meaning "poor." Not necessarily materially poor, but as in lacking in other ways. Someone in a bad situation, or suffering some setback, is thus afflicted, grievous, woeful and many other adjectives. "Poor me!" is a common phrase said by someone in some disadvantageous situation. The word pobre is left untranslated, since in Chamorro we say popble, which is our pronunciation of pobre. The Spanish version of the word is kept in this verse because our elders did, in fact, say many things in the original Spanish, even if there were a Chamorro version of the same word.

Kilisyåno. This literally means "Christian," from the Spanish word cristiano. But Chamorros used it to refer to any human being, but assuming the person was a Christian. The term wouldn't have been used for Pacific Islanders or Asians who had not (yet) been baptized.

Ma na' chispas. Chispas literally means "spark." Then it came to mean any sudden movement, like a sudden burst of water from the hose, or a sudden rush from here to there. To be "made to rush" is to be forced to move, to run away, to disappear from sight.

Sin pinto'-ña. Pinto' means "will." Sin means "without." "Without his will" means it was something he didn't want to do, but was forced to do.

Bodega. Basement. Almost all the homes built of mampostería (rock and lime) had a basement for storage and, when needed, shelter from a typhoon. Since it wasn't used like an ordinary part of the home, it was a good place to hide or find privacy.

A bodega (bottom part) in Inalåhan

Since the bodega was part-storage, part-shelter, it was usually made of stronger material and the rest of the house of lighter.