Барып Қайт Балам (Come Back My Child)

Барып Қайт Балам (Come Back My Child)

Барып қайт балам, ауылға туған барып қайт Шалғынға аунап, құлындай ойнақ салып қайт, Ер болып келер біз жақтың азаматтары Намысты соның көкірегіне жағып қайт Барып қайт Барып қайт балам Ауылға туған барып қайт. Белесі белі, жоқ әлде мидай дала ма? Қарамай жанын, қалдырмай бәрін арала, Шомылып арзан барғайсың күміс көліне Іздерім жатқан секілді менің жағада. Арала! Арала бәрін Орман ба, тау ма, дала ма?! Болар деп қандай сұрайтын едің жайлауды, Сыбағаң үшін бір қозы сонда байлаулы. Аңқылдап келіп, арғымақ тартар ағайын, Алтынды - зерлі ер тұрмандары сайлаулы. Жайлауы, Қайтарсың өзің көзіңмен көріп жайлауды. Ауылың жайлы қиялыңменен елесің Айналып шыңға, ғажайып күнге енесің, Атаңмен марқұм, бабаңның сонда бейіті Соға кел қалқам, елемей кетті демесін Демесін, Соға кел қалқам, елемей кетті демесін Басына барсаң түс ауа кетпей ерте бар, Қасыңа жаным жөн біреу еріту бар Атымнан менің, топырақ таста иіліп, Әкеңнің осы сағыныш күйін шерте бар Шерте бар Әкеңнің осы сағыныш күйін шерте бар Ертелі - кешті қуалай бермей ойынды, Бір уакыт қарғам, арманға жүздір ойыңды. Көпшілік өзі сынағыш келер мұндайда, Абайлап басып, түзетіп ұста бойыңды. Бойыңды Абайлап басып, түзетіп ұста бойыңды. Барып қайт балам ауылға туған барып қайт Шалғынға аунап, құлындай ойнақ салып қайт, Біз жақтың тазы ибалы келер құлыным Жарқ етіп,жайнап жанарын шоқ болып қарап қайт. Барып қайт, Барып қайт балам, Ауылға туған барып қайт. Барып қайт, Барып қайт балам, Ауылыңа туған барып қайт. Барып қайт балам, Ауылыңа туған барып қайт балам. Барып қайт балам.

Come back, my child, to the village of your birth, come back, Come roll in the meadow, return like a colt to frolic, Come become a man, and returning, learn in your heart That our generation is proud Come back Come back, my child To the village of your birth, come back. Are the mountains high, or is the land untouched? Visit the people; walk through the village neglecting no one, And do come to bathe in the open silver lake, My footsteps lie as if in sand. Walk through, Go everywhere, Whether it is forest, mountain, or field. What kind of pasture is it, you always ask: There is sheep in it destined to be slaughtered in your honor. Your attentive brothers will come and give a purebred horse, The very best men of our village are ready. The pasture, When you return and with your own eyes see the pasture. Your fantasies and imagination are tied up with your village, Rising to the wonderful sun, circling the mountaintop, Your grandfather and great-grandfather are departed, Visit their graves, my child, So that they might not say that they are forgotten, Let it not be said, My child, come that they might not say that they are forgotten. When you go to the headstone, go not in the afternoon, but early, Go, my love, with a wise, holy man by your side, Prostrate and throw earth on their grave for me, Your father feels great longing for them, Longing, Your father feels great longing for them. Do not only play games from morning to night, Sometime, my darling, turn your thoughts to your dreams, In such times, many men are observing you, Step carefully, carry yourself straight and true, Carry yourself, Step carefully, carry your body straight and true. Come back, my child, to the village, come back, my child Come roll in the meadow, return like a colt to frolic, Our common men are always well-mannered, my child, As if a firework, return, and seeing, with shining eyes become a cinder, Come back, Come back my child, Come back to the village of your birth. Come back, Come back my child, Come back to the village of your birth. Come back my child, Come back to the village of your birth. Come back my child.

My Last Post in Kazakhstan

Today is my official COS date. That means tomorrow, I'll no longer be a Peace Corps Volunteer. I haven't posted much in the last month because I've been so preoccupied with saying goodbyes. Saying goodbye is hard, and there are so many people in Kokshetau and Kazakhstan that I love and will miss very much.

I may continue to post as I continue to write about Kazakhstan to help me remember things and sort out what this all meant. However, for my last post as a volunteer and my last post from the actual territory of Kazakhstan, I want to give you a translation and recording of my favorite Kazakh song, which happens to be apropos my situation.

My tutor and I spent many hours translating this. Our routine was this - she would read a sentence and translate it in its entirety into Russian or English. We would then translate each individual word and identify its conjugation or declination. Then the final and laborous part would be trying to put them all together to see how the meaning was connected to the actual words. Many times, the words combine in ways that seem to an American to completely depart from their individual meanings, and the grammar, which is both poetic and antiquated, ties them together in ways that has to be worked out more like an equation than a sentence. Of course, these difficulties are not a feature of Kazakh, but of the difference between Kazakh and English. Trying to cast English phrases like “if we’d had the run of the place, we’d have shown them what’s up” into a Kazakh framework would be equally cryptic.

After going through the Kazakh word by word, I sat down and tried to make it sound good in English. Unfortunately, one is stuck translating single, elegant Kazakh words with long, unweildly English phrases. Consider the song’s emotional “демесін”, which ambiguously means either “let it not be said” and “let them not say”, and “мұндайда” which is best translated with the clunky English “in situations like these”. And there are phrases like “Әкеңнің осы сағыныш күйін шерте бар, шерте бар”, which is literally something like “your father’s missing-ness dombra-song-without-words strumming exists, strumming exists”. The whole phrase is an idiom and has to be translated as an entire sentence, but the music puts extra emphasis on the “strumming exists” part, and that repitition has to be translated. What should go instead of it? Also, how can you translate into English cultural words like “жөн”, meaning a good man who knows Muslim prayers to be said at the grave of a relative, or “сыбаға”, meaning the special parts of the sheep that are reserved for the most honored guests at a Kazakh feast? I don’t think I ever really grasped the ambiguities of “аралау”, (and it shows in the translation). Even the main theme of the song, “ауылыңа туған барып қайт” (“return to your village where you were born”), simply cannot be translated into English retaining both the elegance and the meaning, since the “your” and “to” are translated as a single suffix, and the entire English clause “where you were born” is compressed into a single aspect of the Kazakh verb “to be born”.

In a word, this was great fun. Exactly these difficulties are what makes learning Kazakh so rewarding. I hope you enjoy it. I know some Kazakh speakers read this blog, and if you find errors or want to suggest improvements, I would be very glad if you let me know.