Posted by Mato's Son on November 15, 2008 at 11:06:58:
In Reply to: Help with school project on chanting posted by Julie on November 14, 2008 at 01:38:43:
I have chants but they are mostly without music. So I just have the poetry. They had music at one time but the people who knew the singing died a long time ago and now we have just the words.
There are different sorts of chants. There are anthems, what someone sings about their island or village.
Ua patuatini te mau motu i to`u ai'a Pora-pora,
Teie to`u tino tei Vaitape nei,
Ua tahe to`u roimata iti e,
(The islets in my homeland of Bora-Bora are arranged like rocks around a garden,
This is my body here in Vaitape,
My tears are flowing.)
I have a poem that was composed 300 years ago and passed down orally. The woman who composed it was left by her husband for another woman.
Many Tuamotuan and some Marquesan chants start with "Ko vau teie . . . " (It is I, . . . . ) and they give their name. In some cases, the chants were handed down with oral genealogies, so you have the genealogy and the chants composed by the people in the genealogies.
There are other poems that are similar to this. If you translate it late at night, and you are reading something that was composed 400 years ago and passed down orally, you get this strange feeling like you are looking in a mirror and someone is looking back and it is not you. It is kind of cool to see how we all have a common source despite the differences.
So you can write to me and tell me what you would like.
Mato's Son