09.28.09
Caise
In the fifth installment of The Book of the Nisan Shaman there is a word “caise” mentioned as being a kind of food that is prepared for Sergudai Fiyanggo’s funeral. Pawel looked up the word in P. Schmidt, “Chinesische Elemente im Mandschu. Mit Wörterverzeichnis” in: Asia Major volume 7, 1932, and found a strange Chinese character. He referred me to the entry in the dictionary:
I couldn’t find that character anywhere, and neither could several people I asked, so I sent the entry to Victor Mair. After several days of hunting, he finally tracked it down. He says that when he finally spotted it in Hanyu Da Zidian, 5.3164, he “laughed / sobbed bitterly / mournfully”. The following is a guest post by Victor Mair: Read the rest of this entry »
09.07.09
The Book of the Nisan Shaman 04
Previous installments: 1, 2, 3.
geli gisureki seci angga juwame muterakv, jain jabufi gisureme banjinarakv oho
geli [more]
gisureki seci [(he) wanted to say]
angga [mouth]
juwame muterakv [couldn't open]
jain [joint of the jaws] dict. form: jayan
jabufi [stiffened and]
gisureme [speaking, words]
banjinarakv oho [didn't appear]
He wanted to say something more, but he couldn’t open his mouth. His jaws stiffened and no more words appeared. Read the rest of this entry »
