Introduction.

The reason that this young couple fled from their home was not because arrangements were in hand for either to be married to someone else, nor were they running away from an unacceptable marriage already contracted. Thus the technical term "fang", "run-away", is not used. These young people, being first cousins, would not have been eligible to marry one another under normal Miao custom, so that if this is what they wanted to do, they had no option but to run away.

Once again in this song the Ndu-na-yi-mo river is to be identified with the Yangtse, and the Bw-bw country is the independent Yi territory on the western bank.

The house, which they built, was a rough and ready affair. The expression used is that for the temporary shelters of poles and grass thatch, normally erected for guarding crops at harvest time. These were circular in shape, whereas the normal Miao house, with its mud walls, was always rectangular.

Translation
Literal Transcription
Notes

You can see the original documents for this song.

You can also see these pages as Word97 documents

Word97 Introduction
Word97 Translation
Word97 Transcription
Word97 Notes

Return to Index of Songs
Return to First Page of the Archive