KÅNTA : I PUTI'ON KAHULO'

 

This song was recorded more than twenty years ago by the Singing Bus Drivers of the Department of Public Works.

LYRICS

I puti’on kahulo’ åntes de hu maigo’.

(The star rises before I sleep.)

I pilan sumåhe gi uriya. (1)

(The moon nearby wanes.)

Ya bai hu sodda’ i kayon ya hu dalalake. (2)

(I will find the path and I will follow it.)

Osodda’ si nene ni hu guaiya. (3) (4)

(Go to find the baby whom I love.)

Ya i kamå-ña gaige gi fi’on bentåna.

(And her bed lies by the window.)

Na ini’inan i pilan hålom.

(Where the moon shines in.)

Ini’inan i pilan mampos triste.

(The shining of the moon is so sad.)

Ha na’ fåtto piniti-ho.

(It brings my sorrow to me.)

Ya desde ayo na momento nai hu hasso

(And from that moment is when I remembered)

fina’tinås-ña si nene nu guåho. (5)

(what baby did to me.)

 

LANGUAGE NOTES

(1) Uriya literally means either the edge of something or the immediate vicinity of something . It is borrowed from the Spanish orilla which means the edge or outer limit of something (the edge of a table, the banks of a river, the rim of a cup, the hem of a garment). From there Chamorros broadened the meaning to include the immediate vicinity or surroundings of a thing because the edges of things are in the vicinity of the thing, just not at the center.

(2) Sodda'. Because the recording is from many years ago and probably a copy of many copies, the audio quality is rough at times and the words not entirely clear. So there is a possibility that the singer is saying SOTTA instead of SODDA'. Sotta means "to let go of." In this case, the song says the singer will leave the road (the path of life he is on) and follow the star which will lead him to the one he loves.

(3) Osodda'. I am not 100% positive this is what the singer is saying and he has passed away so I cannot ask him. But I can think of no other word that comes close to what I am hearing him sing and it does make sense, though it is the first time I have heard this word used, if in fact it is the word he is singing. Sodda' many of us know means "to find." When we attach an O or an E in front of a word, it can mean "to be in search of." To OPÅNGLAO is "to go in search of land crab." So OSODDA' would mean "to go in search of finding something."

(4) Nene literally means "baby" but it's also a term of endearment, just as we say in English, "Baby darling."

(5) Fina'tinas literally means "something made" but here it means what someone did, because our actions are what we make happen. The Chamorro term for "Act of Contrition" is Fina'tinas Sinetsot.