This is the 3rd in my series of translating Proverbs into the Dyirbal language of Northeast Queensland, Australia.
The original Hebrew is used as a source of inspiration.
Proverbs 4:3
KJV: For I was my father’s son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother.
Dyirbal: Ŋadya bayi galbin; dyurgaŋangay rrulguŋga – daman giyi ŋadya.
Dyirbal lacks any form of Copula: thus this sentence lacks an equivalent to was.
ŋadya is the 1st Person Singular Pronoun, i.e. I.
daman is the Dyirbal word for mother’s child (or child of female ego.)
Thus, it is the equivalent to galbin, which means child of male ego.
In linguistics, the word “ego” refers to the place in the family tree where you write your own name.
We have seen bayi before, and now we have giyi.
These both belong to Class I, and they both clarify a male child. The former I have included only as an aid with which to explain the latter.
Essentially, both of these Markers are built from two components.
In both cases, the second component is –yi, which specifies that it belongs to Class I.
(Dyirbal has four Noun Classes. Class I is reserved mainly for human males and most animals.)
But what does the first component in each mean?
ba- = visible and THERE
gi- = visible and HERE
The ba- forms appear to function as the default version.
gi- emphasises the physical proximity of the relevant noun.
dyurgaŋangay is built from two components:
1. dyurga = a Noun which means sibling.
2. -ŋangay = a Suffix which means without.
Thus, it means without a sibling.
rrulguŋga is the Locative Case Declension of the Noun rrulgu, which means heart.
Simply put, it means in the heart.
I have used the punctuation to split the verse into 3 sections.
Sections 1 & 3 are mirror images of one another, and the same word starts and ends the verse.
Section 2 sort of stands alone.
With these sections in mind, my Dyirbal translation can be re-translated into a haiku:
I’m my father’s son
The lone sibling in her heart
I’m my mother’s son.