The Owl and the Pussy-cat - to be translated into Maori

[pimpoapo]

Hi,

I'm looking for a translation of the Owl and the Pussy-cat by Edward Lear on behalf of my friend who is making a collection of this poem in as many languages as he can, just for fun. He's 97-year-old and this hobby gives him a great pleasure.

The Owl and the Pussy-cat

I

The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
'O lovely Pussy! O Pussy my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!'

II

Pussy said to the Owl, 'You elegant fowl!
How charmingly sweet you sing!
O let us be married! too long we have tarried:
But what shall we do for a ring?'
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the Bong-tree grows
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
With a ring at the end of his nose,
His nose,
His nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.

III

'Dear pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling
Your ring?' Said the Piggy, 'I will.'
So they took it away, and were married next day
By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.


He started about a year ago and we managed to get it in more than 40 languages so far. Because we are running out of resources I decided to ask help from communities who dedicated to different languages.
It doesn't need to be a professional translation.

Here's a website that I started to set up to share all the translations that we've got so far. Some of them was made by poets but most of them just by friends or people who we run into in different places (waiters of the local restaurant, nurses from hospital, etc). They did the best they could and they just did it for fun and because they wanted to add their own language to this collection.

http://pimpoapo.itrello.com/bompa/

The site is under construction, at the moment just a flash version available.

Here is the list of the languages that we've got so far (01/04/2008):

Afrikaans, Basque, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, Esperanto, Estonian, Finnish, French, Frisian, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Irish Gaelic, Korean, Kyrgyz, Latin, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malagasy, Norvegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazilian), Romanian, Russian, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog (Pilipino), Thai, Turkish, Welsh

If you could translate it into Maori that would be a great help for us.
For exchange I always mention who did the translation at the end of the poem and if you wish it can be linked to your website or email address.

Thanks again for anyone who will help us.

-=Pimpoapo=-

[Nero]

Hmm, no replies yet?

I thought that Riki would be zealous to make "Te ruru me te ngeru" in his mother tongue...

[Ariki]

I thought that Riki would be zealous to make "Te ruru me te ngeru" in his mother tongue...

This Hawaiian language thread is calling to you Nero

In the future all posts made in this forum that are not Maori or Polynesian related will be counted as spam and be moved into the appropriate forum. The Klingon translation of The Owl and the Pussy-cat can be found here

Here is the Māori translation Pimpoapo. Credit it to Ariki.

Ko te Ruru me te Naki

I

Kua wharau te Ruru me te Naki mā runga i te moana,
Mā runga i tētahi kaipuke kākāriki,
Ka mauria mai te honi me te moni,
Ka takaia ki te moni pukapuka e rima pauna e,
Ka titiro whakarunga te Ruru ki ngā whetū,
Ā, ka pūoro ki tētahi rakuraku nohinohi,
'Auē e te tau! E te Naki ko koe te tau o taku ate e!'
Kātahi rā te Naki ātaahua ko koe,
Koia koia,
koia koia!
Kātahi rā te Naki ātaahua ko koe!

II

Ko te kōrerotanga ake o te Naki ki te Ruru, 'E te Ruru, kātahi rā te manu hūmarie ko koe!'
Te reka hoki o tōu reo waiata,
Kia marenatia tāua! Kua roa rawa tō tāua tatari;
Auē, pēwhea tāua e hoko ai i tētahi rīngi mōku?
Kotahi te tau me te kotahi rā i wharau atu rā rāua e,
Ki te motu, e tupu ake ana i reira te rākau Pongi,
Ā, i reira te Poaka e tū ana,
Kei te pito o tōna ihu te ringi,
Kei te pito o tōna ihu,
Kei te pito o tōna ihu,
Kei te pito o tōna ihu te ringi.

III

E te Poaka, e whakaae ana rānei koe ki te hoko mai,
I tō rīngi mō te kotahi hīrengi? Ko tā te Poaka, 'Āe.'
Ka hokona e rāua, heoti anō, i te rā i whai mai ka marentia rāua,
e te Korukoru, e noho ana ki runga i te puke.
Ka kai mīti mōrohe rāua, me ngā kotinga o te kuinihi e,
Ki te pune runitipu,
Ka mau rima rāua, i runga i te te onepū,
Ka konikoni rāua i raro i te atarau,
I raro i te atarau,
I raro i te atarau,
Ka konikoni rāua i raro i te atarau.

[pimpoapo]

Thank you very much riki for your help. I updated the site and your translation is also available now there.

I hope I hasn't caused any hard feeling between you and Nero with my requests.

Thanks again for your help,

-=Pimpoapo=-

[Ariki]

Thank you very much riki for your help. I updated the site and your translation is also available now there.

I hope I hasn't caused any hard feeling between you and Nero with my requests.

Thanks again for your help,

-=Pimpoapo=-

You haven't caused anything at all.

Glad to be of service.

[Taurks]

You haven't caused anything at all.

(Taurks = Nero)

Kei te whakaae au

Je suis d'accord

Estoy de acuerdo

Ich bin einverstanden

jIQochbe'

['Oia'i'o Hawaiian]

I thought that Riki would be zealous to make "Te ruru me te ngeru" in his mother tongue...

This Hawaiian language thread is calling to you Nero

In the future all posts made in this forum that are not Maori or Polynesian related will be counted as spam and be moved into the appropriate forum. The Klingon translation of The Owl and the Pussy-cat can be found here

Here is the Māori translation Pimpoapo. Credit it to Ariki.

Ko te Ruru me te Naki

I

Kua wharau te Ruru me te Naki mā runga i te moana,
Mā runga i tētahi kaipuke kākāriki,
Ka mauria mai te honi me te moni,
Ka takaia ki te moni pukapuka e rima pauna e,
Ka titiro whakarunga te Ruru ki ngā whetū,
Ā, ka pūoro ki tētahi rakuraku nohinohi,
'Auē e te tau! E te Naki ko koe te tau o taku ate e!'
Kātahi rā te Naki ātaahua ko koe,
Koia koia,
koia koia!
Kātahi rā te Naki ātaahua ko koe!

II

Ko te kōrerotanga ake o te Naki ki te Ruru, 'E te Ruru, kātahi rā te manu hūmarie ko koe!'
Te reka hoki o tōu reo waiata,
Kia marenatia tāua! Kua roa rawa tō tāua tatari;
Auē, pēwhea tāua e hoko ai i tētahi rīngi mōku?
Kotahi te tau me te kotahi rā i wharau atu rā rāua e,
Ki te motu, e tupu ake ana i reira te rākau Pongi,
Ā, i reira te Poaka e tū ana,
Kei te pito o tōna ihu te ringi,
Kei te pito o tōna ihu,
Kei te pito o tōna ihu,
Kei te pito o tōna ihu te ringi.

III

E te Poaka, e whakaae ana rānei koe ki te hoko mai,
I tō rīngi mō te kotahi hīrengi? Ko tā te Poaka, 'Āe.'
Ka hokona e rāua, heoti anō, i te rā i whai mai ka marentia rāua,
e te Korukoru, e noho ana ki runga i te puke.
Ka kai mīti mōrohe rāua, me ngā kotinga o te kuinihi e,
Ki te pune runitipu,
Ka mau rima rāua, i runga i te te onepū,
Ka konikoni rāua i raro i te atarau,
I raro i te atarau,
I raro i te atarau,
Ka konikoni rāua i raro i te atarau.

Why did you use Naki instead of ngeru? The Maori dictionary shows that ngeru is the correct word for cat while Naki is not a word at all. You should change Naki to ngeru. I'm going to take the liberty of reviewing the rest of your 'translation' for more mistakes.

[Eoghan]

Riki is a native speaker of Maori - your dictonary is merely a book and it wouldn't surprise me if its outdated. Language change over time, Naki might be another way of saying cat. And cats aren't native to NZ, so there might be several ways of saying cat, created on different places during different times once the cats were introduced...

I've adictionary which gives me the following options:

Poti, ngeru, tori, puihi, naki (kitten)
If Riki says that the translation is correct I'd believe him any day.

[pimpoapo]

Hi again,

I just would like to update the address of the site where all the translations for this poem are available:

http://www.bompa.org

I had to change it because free hosts come and go, but at least this address will be permanent, doesn't matter which hosting company I use.

-=Pimpoapo=-

[Ariki]

Why did you use Naki instead of ngeru? The Maori dictionary shows that ngeru is the correct word for cat while Naki is not a word at all. You should change Naki to ngeru. I'm going to take the liberty of reviewing the rest of your 'translation' for more mistakes.

Naki = cat.

Enough said.

[pimpoapo]

Hi everyone,

I'm back with a new request. The last six month the http://www.bompa.org has been gone through many changes. One of them is, I started to share the audio versions of the translations.
So I would like to ask someone to help me with the Maori recording if it's possible. You can send me a PM with a link to your record or send it to my email address that can be found on the site.
Thanks in advance, I'm looking forward to listen the Maori translation in your language sooner or later,

-=Pimpoapo=-