| Description |
Translation (Rita Seng Mai)
The story I'm going to tell is "A young dragon man." Once upon a time, there were a mother and a daughter in a village. One day, the mother and the daughter went to pick banana leaves in a forest. When they went there, they met a big snake on the way. Then they drove the snake away and went back home. But the big snake fell in love immediately with the young girl as soon as it saw her. Although it was a snake, it loved her. So, that snake came to the girl's house at night. It shed its skin just in front of the girl's house's door, and then it transformed into a human boy. Then it went into the house. Since that day, that snake transfigured into the boy and went to the girl's house every night. And he spent the night with the girl. He came there every night. After he went back to his place in the morning, he left the snake's skin at her house every day. The skin surprisingly turned into gold the next morning. The girl and her mother got lots of gold since the boy came to her house every day and left the skin which turned into gold. One day, the girl told her mother, Mom, this snake might be the one who transforms into the human boy at night. He might be the one whom I receive every night. He always turns into the snake and goes back to its place in the morning." Then, her mother told her, "My daughter, burn his skin while he is asleep at midnight." As her mother told, the girl sneaked out of the house once the boy fell asleep at night and burnt his snake's skin. The next morning, the boy tried to transform into the snake again. He didn't have his snake's skin hence he couldn't change into a snake anymore although he was a snake (a spiritual one). Since he couldn't change, he just lived as a human. He lived happily together with the girl. They became rich with the gold he gave before. Their neighbour felt jealous of the girl and her mother's properties. So, that woman asked the girl's mother, "My friend, you were poor before. How did you become so rich now?" Then the girl's mom told everything to her. "When we went to the forest, we met a snake. That snake could turn into a human at night, and it gave us gold. And we burnt his skin, and things are happening like this" told the girl's mother. As the girl's mother was truthful and righteous, she told everything to that neighbour. Then that jealous woman wanted to be rich too. So, she took her daughter and went to the forest to pick banana leaves for wrappers. Actually, she there went to find the snake, not to pick banana leaves. While they were finding the snake, they saw that a snake was wandering. When they saw that snake, they thought that "Oh God, this is the snake. Good! Good!" And they put that snake into the bamboo basket and took it to their house. When they reached home, the mother put her daughter and that snake into a room, and let her sleep with it. But unfortunately, that snake was not a spiritual one. It was just a snake. Since it was just a snake, it could swallow the prey. Then at night, it licked the girl. Then it started to swallow her legs. At that time, the girl said to her mom, "Mom, the snake licked me and swallowed me. It's swallowing my legs now." Then her mother said, "It's because he loves you." The snake kept swallowing the girl. Then the girl said, "Mom, it's swallowing my knees now." Her mother kept saying, "It's because he loves you." The girl said, "Mom, it's swallowing my waist." Her mom only said, "It's because he loves you." Then the girl said, "Mom, it's swallowing my chest now." But her mother was thinking only about the gold which the snake would give. Then she couldn't go to check even though her daughter was telling like that. She said, "Bear it! It's okay. He did that because he loves you." The girl said, "Mom, it's my neck now." But her mother said, "It's just because he loves you." After saying 'it's my neck now', the girl was quiet. When the woman couldn't hear anything from the room, she thought "It's good now. My daughter will get gold tomorrow." She was happy with the thought of getting gold. The next day, when the woman went into the room and looked for the gold, she couldn't find not only the gold but also her daughter. She saw the snake which was lying peacefully there after swallowing her daughter. Then, she didn't get any gold and lost her daughter too. The moral of this story is that we can't get rich although our friends get rich, and we shouldn't have jealousy. In this story, the greedy woman couldn't think well, and she was jealous of her neighbour. At last, she lost her valuable daughter.
Transcription (Lu Awng)
Langai mi bai nga yang gaw ndai baren sharang ngu na ngai mying jaw da ai. Baren shabrang ngu ai mying jaw da ai hku rai nga. Re yang gaw moi na anhte prat hta gaw moi na anhte jinghpaw ni na prat hta gaw lahpaw htat ai, hpun hta ai ngu gaw nam de sa ra ai le i, kanu yen kasha gaw lahpaw htat sa ai nam de re shalai gaw lapu kaba langai mi hte hkrum ai. Lapu kaba langai mi hte hkrum nna shan gaw lahpaw htat nna wa mat ai. Nta de wa mat re shaloi gaw lapu kaba dai wa gaw dai num kasha mahkawn hpe grai ra wa sai da lu i lapu she raitim ra wa re jang she shana she dai shanhte nta de sa nna she shi na tsawp hpe she oh chyinghka lam makau de raw da nna she nta de shang, masha rai sai le masha rai nna she shi gaw shinggyim masha shabrang tai nna she dai mahkawn hte shana sagu sa kanawn nawn re ai da. Reng gaw hpang e gaw wa na re shaloi gaw ndai sep lapu sep le i langai mi jahkrat da ya. Jakrat da ya jang gaw hpang jahpawt rai jang gaw dai gaw ja hkyep rai mat, reng gaw shana shagu dai hku re jang gaw shan nu gaw ja ni grai lu wa sai le, reng she hpang gaw kanu hpe tsun dan ai, nu e dai lapu dai gaw shana reng gaw shinggyim masha rai na ngai hkap la ai wa, jahpawt rai jang gaw lapu tai nna wa mat mat re law ngu da. Re jang she kanu gaw e ma e nang ya shana yup tung e shi yup ai shaloi shi na tsawp le i tsawp ngu ai hpyi le tsawp ngu ai, lapu tsawp nga ai le dai tsawp hpe nat kau ya ngu hku re nga nmu i, reng gaw shi mung e shabrang wa yup nga shaloi lagu nna lapu tsawp hpe nat kau ya reng gaw hpang japawt gaw shi gaw lapu bai tai na matu shakut ai le i, retim shi tsawp nnga sai le re jang gaw nat lapu raitim shi gaw lapu nmai byin mat sai. Shinggyim masha byin nna shan gaw dai mi shi jaw da ai ja gumhpraw ni hte grai lu su mat ai le. Grai lu su jang gaw dai hitngbu jan mung i mahkawn langai lu ai gaw shi kasha retim shi gaw manang lu ai hpe hkrai shi grai manawn ai. Manawn nna she e ning e nang gaw moi gaw an 2 maren sha matsan ai wa ya gaw gara hku na nang lusu wa ai i ngu shaloi gaw e dai hku dai hku re le de sa ai shaloi lapu langai mi mu nna shana rai jang gaw masha tai nna dai hku dai hku le i yawng tsip nat kau ai du hkra hkai dan rai nmasu ai sha hkrak tsun dan ai shi gaw myit wa ding ai le i shi gaw myit malang ai dai hku tsun re jang gaw dai masu manawn chye ai num jan mung shi mung sahte mayu sai gaw rai yang gaw kasha hpe woi kasha hpe woi nna hpun, lahpaw sa htat ai kaja wa nga yang gaw shi lahpaw sa htat ai nre sa lapu sa tam ai rai sai lapu sa tam re yang gaw kaja wa gaw nam de gaw lapu gaw nga ai gaw i, pu noi langai mi hkawan taw ai la. Hkawan taw ai hpe shan gaw kek rai sa ngu na she shingnoi kaw zut di nna nta de gun wa ai le. Nta de gun mat wa rai na gawk langai mi kaw she dai kanu gaw dai mahkawn hte e mahkawn jan hpe lapu hte shayup kau da ai le. Taw nat lapu nre gaw kaja wa shi gaw lapu majing punoi ngu gaw mayu chye ai baw re nang chye ai le e dai mayu chye ai rai jang gaw shana gaw lapu dai gaw shi hpe mata sai gaw mata rai lagaw hku shawng mayu ai da. Nu e ngai hpe lapu gaw mata nna mayu ai law ya lagaw lahkre du sai ngu jang nang hpe tsawra nna i mata ai rai nga ngu lapu gaw nawt bai lahput nu e ya lahput du sai law e nang hpe tsawra nna dai shala ai rai nga ngu. Nshang du sai law dai hku sha nang hpe tsawra nna re nga ya yang gaw sinda du sai law nga raitim kanu gaw hto ra lapu e jahkrat da na ja gumhpraw chyu myit nga nmu i shi gaw re jang gaw e sharang u ma e nang hpe tsawra nna dai lapu nang hpe dai hku di ai rai nga ngu. Hpang gaw nu e du du sai loh ngu reng gaw retim shi gaw dai hku zawn sha ah nga nang hpe tsawra nna rai nga ngu sha ah nga taw du du sai loh nga nna gaw zim mat ai da kasha, kasha gaw zim mat yang gaw kanu gaw ya rai sai nye kasha gaw ja hkyep lu na rai sai hpawt de gaw ngu nna she grai kabu taw oh kaw gaw mayu kau sai gaw nlu tsun sai gaw rai hpang jahpawt gaw gawk de shang yu nna tam yu yang gaw kasha hpe mung nmu, ja hkyep mung ntaw rai yang gaw tam tam di yang gaw dai lapu wa gaw hto bumga na htinggan ngu le i hto dai kaw she kasha hpe mayu nna kan gaw tit tit re dai kaw gan taw nga ai da. E rai nna shi gaw kasha ma sum mat sai, ja gumhpraw ma nlu ai. Ngu mayu ai gaw manawn htingbu lu su shagu tingnang lusu ai baw nre ai gaw i reng gaw shi hta e myit yu mang yu ai lam ma nnga ai. Lu mayu ai myit langai sha rawng law hpa myit marin langai sha nga ai. E dai majaw kasha ma sum mat ai nga maumwi re.
Notes
1. A similar story can be found in Rumai (p.c., Nathan Badenoch, December 2019).
2. A possibly related story can be found in Lahu Texts (149) at: https://stedt.berkeley.edu/node/18.html
3. The animated version is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0B09cVEO7c |
