I Na'ån-mu

 


For fun, I used to take anime songs (gi Fino' Chapones) and translate them into Chamoru. Over the years I translated songs from Naruto, Gantz, Cromartie High School, Master Keaton, Evangelion, and Attack on Titan just to name a few. It was an exercise in expressing two things that I am very nerdy about. I hadn't thought about this in a long time though until earlier tonight when Youtube's next song randomness started playing anime theme songs. As I started to feel the chetnot nostalgia hit me, the kids asked what song is this? where is this from? When I described the plot of Evangelion to Sumåhi, her review, "wow sen na'triste enao (wow that is like incredibly depressing)." I told the kids about how I used to translate songs like this into Chamoru. When they asked why, I said, "Ya-hu fino' Chamoru, ya-hu este na kånta. Anggen hu pula' este gi mismo lenguahi-hu, hu na'latatahdong I siniente-ku put este. (I like Chamoru, I like this song. If I translate this song into Chamoru, I am deepening my feelings about it.) I then asked them what was their favorite recent anime, they quickly responded with "Kimi no Na wa" or "Your Name" in English. Sumåhi made clear her opinion of the film by saying with overwhelming emotion, "I siniente siha. Gof tahdong. (the feels. Very deep.)" We went through the soundtrack and picked their favorite song from it "Zenzenzense" and spent the evening translating it into Chamoru. My kids are definitely going to nerds, I hope that they'll be Chamoru nerds though.

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