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Title Preface 1
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Preface
Omoro Sausi is the songs that were compiled by the royal administration of the Ryukyu Kingdom from the year 1531 to 1623. I translated Omoro Saushi world-firstly, completely in English. Omoro Saushi is written in Okinawan language. gOmoro Saushi.h What does it mean? The word Omoro means gthinkh and Sausi does gbookh in English. It can be translated as gBook of Thoughth. My translation is gNotes of Narrationsh. The authors of Omoro Saushi are almost likely shamans. Okinawan shamans are called gyutah or g noroh in Okinawan Language. They are still alive vividly at present time. Okinawan yuta or noro are affirmatively female. Omoro Saushi contains 1554 poems or narrations that were mostly made by the possessed women. Omoro is the very characteristic literature in the world. Gods come down to shamans that narrate in place of gods. In the old time, Okinawan people believed that Omoro Saushi was the words of gods. In the present time, European or Arabian people believe that Bible or Quran is the words of God. Omoro is narrated in the present tense. The subjects are mostly deleted. In the ancient time, people believed that all things were done by gods. You donft have to decide the subjects. They should be left in your imaginations. Almost narrators of Omoro are shamans that admire gods, kings, lords or other shamans. People in the present world admire movie stars, singers, soccer players or entrepreneurs. There are a lot of repetitions and ready-made words in Omoro.
¦The Omoro writers used repetition mark (). In this translations, instead of (), I use a comma ( ,). The first narration of Omoro is recited like under.
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Well-known Holy Lady, ©
Coming down to take divine services
Under the sun
May the king rule over the world!
Sounding Spirit Lady,@©
In the consecrated woods mound of Head-Town,@©
In the consecrated woods mound of True-Stone,@©
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Well-known Holy Lady
Coming down to take divine services
Under the sun
May the king rule over the world!
Sounding Spirit Lady
Coming down to take divine services
Under the sun
May the king rule over the world!
In the consecrated woods mound of Head-Town
Coming down to take divine services
Under the sun
May the king rule over the world!
In the consecrated woods mound of True-Stone
Coming down to take divine services
Under the sun
May the king rule over the world!
¦There are plenty of personfs names and place names in Omoro. All those names were translated in English. Personfs and placefs names are poetic themselves. For example, ‘Am¨Now-Come-Virtue. ρ’¨Head-Town. Exceptions ¨ Okinawa, Naha, Kyoto, Kamakura and Nara. This five place names are very renowned.
¦There are about 100 unidentified words still in Omoro. I gave means to all of those words. If my identifications are wrong, please inform to me. Ifll correct them. If my translations are incorrect or unnatural, also they shall be better ones.
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¦Omoro is a very specific literature that was made by very specific persons. The authors of Omoro were almost illiterate. The writers of Omoro were the officials of the Ryukyu Kingdom. They collected Omoro twice or thrice over. There are a lot of doubles in Omoro. All doubles were deleted in this translation. The original Omoro contains 1554 narrations. This translation has about 1250 ones.
¦There are four coined words of mine. ¨@heavener, paradiser, hamleter and paradisely. These words are not in OED. Meanings of these words are quite obvious.
¦There is only one Japanese English. ¨@sake.(a Japanese fermented liquor made from rice.) (but,Okinawan sake is a distilled liquor.)
¦There are lots of words, Lady. Lady means just a shaman.
¦There are lots of authors in Omoro. Which should the translator choose unity or diversity? I chose diversity. Same word was often translated into plural expressions.
¦There are lots of couplets, imperatives and optatives in Omoro.
¦Interjections are signified like g-----h. For example gEke.h. They are pronounced as Latin Language.
¦The translator of this book is a native Okinawan. English is a second language.