LENTEN HYMN : MAILA' GEF MAÑOTSOT

 

In Santa Rita they sing a Lenten hymn that is in the Lepblon Kånta (Chamorro hymn book for all of Guam from before the war) but which I have never heard sung anywhere else.

It is called MAILA' GEF MAÑOTSOT and it is based on the Spanish Lenten hymn VEN A PENITENCIA (Come to Penance).

LYRICS

Maila' gef mañotsot gi guma'yu'us / maila' as Tatå-mo guine as Jesus.

(Come, truly repentant, to church / come to your Father here who is Jesus.)

Gutos i kadena / ni i geddede-mo / ya un ta'lo mågi gi inisague-mo;

(Break the chains / of your bondage / and come here again to the one you have offended;)

mampos i isao-mo / gi me'nan Yu'us.

(your sins overflow / before God.)

Hokkok i minaolek / i ginefli'e'-ña / hokkok i mineggai / i mina'ase'-ña;

(To the limit is the goodness / of His love / and the abundance / of His mercy;)

maila' as Tatå-mo / guiya si Jesus.

(come to your Father / He who is Jesus.)

Asaina hu tungo' / i tinailaye-ko / na hu isague hao / ni i minaolek-ho;

(Lord I know / my evil / that I have sinned against you / who are my good;)

gai ase' nu guåho / Asaina Yu'us.

(have mercy on me / Lord God.)

COMPARE WITH THE SPANISH ORIGINAL

The Spanish starts this way with the refrain :

Ven a penitencia, ya no peques más; ven a penitencia y te salvarás.

Come to penance, and sin no more; come to penance, and you will save yourself.

So whoever translated the Spanish into the Chamorro version strayed a bit from the Spanish original in order to rhyme in Chamorro (Guma'yu'us / Jesus) and to keep within the number of notes.

But the next verse stays a bit closer to the Spanish original :

Rompe la cadena, que te tiene atado; ¡ay! que es grande pena ver a Dios airado;

llora tu pecado y te librarás.

Break the chain which has you tied; oh what a great sorrow to see God angry;

weep over your sins and you will free yourself.

SOME GRAMMAR NOTES

1) Usually, the definite article "i" (the) would change guma'yu'us to gima'yu'us, but the song doesn't follow that rule for some reason, even though it does in godde (tie) which becomes "i geddede-mo."

2) People think hokkok means "finished, exhausted, used up." But it really means "the ultimate point or limit." When all the food is finished, depleted, used up, it has reached its final or ultimate limit. God is tai hinekkok, without limit. But our mañaina used to say things like, "Hokkok i minagof-ho!" or "Hokkok i piniti-ho!" not to express that they no longer had joy or sorrow but that their joy or sorrow has reached its ultimate point or limit; that they had so much joy (or sorrow) that they couldn't be any fuller of it.