Translated Pagan Chant

['Ì'awn Menari]

Kaltxì!  I find it easier to learn a language by trying to translate things into it.  So i figured i'd try to translate one of my favorite pagan chants into Na'vi.  however some of the words aren't in the dictionary, so i don't know what they are.  and i don't know if i did it right either.  Many Irayo in advanced and for my brothers and sisters of the faith i hope you enjoy.     Blessed Be

In English
Air my breath
Fire my spirit
Earth my body
And water my blood (10x)

NiNa'vi

(Air) oeyä (breath)
Txep oeyä tirea
'rrta oeyä tokx
Sì pay oeyä (blood) (10x)

[Vawm tsamsiyu]

Blood is "reypay" i don't know if there's a word for breath though

['Oma Tirea]

Air could be "hufwe," though I don't know whether or not this is sufficient.

I'm pretty sure there should be a word for "breath".  If we keep searching, there may even be one found in the movie.

Spoiler

To translate:
"...and breathe her back into us..."

[Vawm tsamsiyu]

Well reypay is "life water" in the dictionary so mabe tsopì hufwe (lung wind) or Rey hufwe (life wind) can be used as placeholders until we have an official word for breath

[`Eylan Ayfalulukanä]

'breathe' and 'breath' were both asked for in the recent lexical expansion project.

[omängum fra'uti]

Air is "ya", and I believe the line from the movie is in Na'vi "Ngeyä ya" for
"And breath her back to us"
Ulte tìng ayoe-r nì'eyng nge-yä ya-t

(Disclaimer, that's just a rough guess of what it sounds like is being said, and the translation may seem odd, but it makes more sense in the context of the rest of what is said.)

[Vawm tsamsiyu]

Maybe air could be used for breathe (for now) my air=my breath
oeyä ya Lu Txum.  My air (breath) is poison.
That could work as a placeholder since we have "ya" just a thought

[Dreamlight]

Hm, all this would kind of make the elemental chant sound a little redundant?

[Vawm tsamsiyu]

Hm, all this would kind of make the elemental chant sound a little redundant?

true. Maybe Rey ya (life air) like reypay (life water) would be better for now, except the 2 y's together is wierd.

[omängum fra'uti]

Remember, translate the meaning, not the words.  See if you can find some way to rephrase it that carries the feel and message of the original, but in a more Na'vi way.

[kewnya txamew'itan]

Depending on whether hufwe is actually a noun (as we think it, I'm not sure if it's been confirmed) or on the functioning of sä-, sähufwe could work for air.

That said, as omängum said, it's always best to translate meaning. Alternatively using a slightly strange kenning (which might not be used by the na'vi at all), 'it hufweyä might work although if it did it would be pretty idiomatic.

[omängum fra'uti]

At this point all parts of speech have been confirmed.

And we have "ya" for air, why try to complicate it?

[kewnya txamew'itan]

Because ya is a best guess from an audio source we know not to be perfect. That said, it's almost certainly more accurate than using a figure of speech of a type we have no clue whether the na'vi would use or not.

[omängum fra'uti]

Actually "ya" is from a word list from Karyu Pawl, we know to be fairly officially accurate.  I believe at this point all the words in the dictionary (Besides Taronyu's guesses which I believe are all marked with a *) are correct in meaning, spelling and part of speech.  Some of them the meaning or exact use is vague or unclear, but the words are all correct words.

[kewnya txamew'itan]

Ahh, sorry I completely misread your post. In that case yeah, ya is of course the way to go.

['Ì'awn Menari]

Because ya is a best guess from an audio source we know not to be perfect. That said, it's almost certainly more accurate than using a figure of speech of a type we have no clue whether the na'vi would use or not.

irayo. i'll give it a shot to make the chant seem more Na'vi in structure.  who knows maybe we'll be able to use it at a ritual one day or something lol

Eywa ngahu ma tsmukan

['Ì'awn Menari]

would this work for a reworded chant na'vi style?  i'm working on translating it right now...but still


Four elements make up Eywa's children
Four elements alone make us whole
Our breath is made of the air
blow strongly through the trees.
The spirit we bare comes from the fire,
Burning forever inside of all
Bodies come from the earth,
Strong and full of life
Our blood is of the water
Flowing within rivers, giving life
Four elements make up Eywa's children
These four elements make us whole.