The mawwal
An example of a very well known mawwal is the Sha Morwenno of r'I Kaissar, the major
poet of the middle Mairem period. The poem tells of the poet's feelings about the death of his
daughter, Morwenno, in a fire. It should be noted that this is considered a particularly awful
way to die, because it lacks honour and dignity.
Sha Morwenno
Sorof, elixiku xwerne the mormri ntaa,
Peshe, welenoku leil, tastammer mshsha,
Xu peit usuldoriaxathmelammeromni
da xei, t'usuldoria mel venuletrossi.
Xjaie x'kaldiloros bure, elitailg e-mor,
Reshinya morarvo extere; eidla kaldilor
da lissammual. Xeinngye li mesda lo.
Xeinalshunel e-domen na xua aro.
A fairly free translation:
I have spent many nights lately in the darkened house
Quietly, alone, while everyone is sleeping,
Listening for the word that silence might speak
If silence had a voice.
The coffee-pot slowly grows cold, the night draws on,
I consider suicide briefly; drink the last cup of coffee instead.
I do not mourn her death.
I shall grieve for ever the manner of her passing.
It may be of some use to consider this poem on a word-by-word basis:
sorof - the depths of night, the small hours
elin - to spend time, elixi - I passed time
-ku - modal form indicating repeated or habitual action
xwerne - recently, adverb from xwerni, recent
the - in, within
mormri - darkened, made dark (from mormrin, to be or
become dark)
ntaa - house
peshe - quietly, adverb from peshi, quiet, hushed
weleno - past central participle form of the auxiliary, therefore, roughly,
'(I) was being'
-ku - repeated action
leil - alone (adjunct form of adjective leili, singular, solitary,
alone)
tastammer - present distal plural of taston, to sleep, in this
context read as 'they sleep'
mshsha - everybody
xu - that
peit - word
usuldoria - silence
xathmelamme - present distal singular of the archaic verb
xathmelon, modern melathon, to speak
-ro - mode of probability, 'might, may'
-mni - clause binder, converts a phrase into an extended adjective
thus xathmelammeromni - which (he,she,it) may speak, and
usuldoriaxathmelammeromni - which silence may speak
da - particle indicating 'this thing' or 'the subject already specified'
xei - listening, from xein, to hear, to listen
t' - to, into, up to (contracted form of te)
mel - voice
venulet - it was
-rossi - compound mode indicating a possible (but implicitly unlikely)
action
thus venuletrossi - it could have been
xjaie distal singular of xjain, to grow cold
x'- - article vocative, 'the'
kaldiloros - vessel used to prepare kaldilor, a mildly stimulant
beverage
bure - slowly, adverb from buri, slow
eli- defective form of elie, present distal singular of
elin (see above)
-tai - passive mode, thus elitai - it is spent
-lg, -alg - adjunctive mode, 'also'
e- - article vocative, 'the'
mor - night
reshin - present central singular of reshin, to consider
morarvo - suicide by night (from Akimali moru arvo, the 'night path')
extere - briefly, adverb from exteri, swift, quickly passing
eidla - the final cup, a ritual term from the kaldilor ceremony
kaldilor - see above
lissammu - present central singular of lisson, to drink
-al - mode indicating an alternate or alternative action
xein - present central singular of xein, to mourn, to grieve
(note that this is orthographically identical to the verb 'to hear' - both words are derived from
Akimali, in which they were distinguished by tone, but tonal inflection is not used to
distinguish individual words in xathmel)
-ngye - mode of negation
li _ lo - her
mesda - a bad or dishonourable death
-shun - emphatic mode
-el - mode indicating an indefinitely prolonged action
thus xeinalshunel - but I am indeed always mourning
domen - manner, style, method
na - of
xua - that
aro - going, from aron, to go