Songs
Mosuo people do not have a developed written language system. Mosuo society have greatly relied on an oral tradition to pass down their traditional culture. For over thousand years, folk singing has served as an important part of Mosuo oral tradition on all different kinds of occasions, such as religious ceremonies, labor, festivals, house opening ceremonies, and expression of love. Due to the limited access, my documentary has not been able to include Mosuo folk songs for all different occasions. I hope the lyrics in this column will give you more exposure to Mosuo folk songs. However, the nuances of these songs may be lost in translation.
These Mosuo lyrics were collected by Lamu Gatusa in Labai Village in the late 1980s. Lamu translated these lyrics in Chinese and published them in “The Collection of Mosuo People’s Folk Literature in Yunnan” in 1991. I have translated the lyrics into the English based on Lamu’s Chinese translation. When I worked on the translation of Mosuo songs from Mosuo language to mandarin with Lamu for my documentary, he often pointed out that the nuances and the poetic rhythms of Mosuo folk songs could not avoid getting lost. Because it was often difficult to find the right Chinese words to present the subtle meanings of the Mosuo words, and the languages of course sound different. I faced similar problems in the English translation.
(Pic: Grandpa Young Erche took a break from horse keeping and sang for us. Due to the structure of the film, his singing has not been included in the documentary. But it is included in the “Mosuo Song Collection” in the documentary DVD.)
Mosuo singing of Linen Cloth Making (English Translation)
Ode to Mother (English Version)
Birth of the World (?????, Chinese Translation)
Guiding for the Path (?????, Chinese Translation)
Songs of A Horseman (?????, Chinese Translation)