By Leonard Fong Roka
if you are a buai chewer as many are across Bougainville I know you will love this song from a Panguna man and regular lover of buai.
It is our Bougainville culture. We go down to Arawa with baskets of buai to attract attention from people or to openly social as extroverts.
Mungkas-man and his Buai
Chit-chat. Chat-chit; chit-chat
Sweet talk and peace to the soul
Sweet song and love to the soul
Sweet touch and joy to the soul
The Mungkas-man
Strolling down the road to Arawa
Staggering stoic to the store-man
Sweat singing down his face
Loins laughing in the shimmering lawns
For the basket are green mountain nuts of Kaino
For the pocket to be money
Earnings for the day
Chit-chat. Chat-chit; chit-chat
Sweet talk and peace to the soul
Sweet song and love to the soul
Sweet touch and joy to the soul
The Mungkas-man
Steals the show to his pride
The meet loves his crimson red mouth and the stream of his
words
The day frisks the Kaino basket
The magicians just belch out more song
The Kaino lasso stretches out for more love
That is nothing but buai
That moves down her spine and across her heart
Singing ‘kara ko ameai, aung’.
Chit-chat. Chat-chit; chit-chat
Sweet talk and peace to the soul
Sweet song and love to the soul
Sweet touch and joy to the soul
Of the
Bougainvillean man.
Glossary
Mungkas— ‘black’ in Buin
Kara ko ameai— ‘give me areca nuts’ in Nasioi
Aung— ‘hey’ to a male
Buai— areca nut
No comments:
Post a Comment