DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49270#0253
Mwana Kupona
171
I wish to warn her — see that you pay attention and follow God; return together with the
women:
95. Read this all ye women, so that ye may understand, and may bear no blame before the
blessed Lord.
Read: (these words are like) wheat springing up; obey your husbands, that ye may meet
with no loss in this world and the next.
She who obeys her husband, power and prosperity are hers; whatever place she goes to
she becomes known, and (her fame) is spread abroad.
She who wrote this poem is lonely and acquainted with grief: and if she was ever uplifted
in spirit (she trusts) the Lord will pardon it.
Let me give you the number (of verses); it is a hundred and one; and two in addition:
they are what I have added.
Completed by the help of God.
Notes
Line 1.
binti wangu would be the usual order, the inversion, as in line 3 (katite hadisi), being for
the sake of the rhyme. Binti (<lxD) is sometimes used colloquially for kijana (or
at Mombasa, mtoto') mwanamke. It is seen in such patronymics as Mbeu binti Sadiki.
The Swahilis frequently employ the particle wa = 'of’ as a filiative — Somorfe wa Haji,
etc. Often the connective is omitted altogether.
mchachefu is not found in Krapf,3 but cf. chache = 'a little, a few’, and mchache; it is
explained by Ahmadi as mtu mwenyi mambo matoto = 'a person of small affairs’. The
word seems to be formed from -chache by the suffix -fu in the same way as -takatifu,
-pungufu, etc.4 Here it appears to have the force of 'this trifle ’.
hasanat(i) is the Arabic genetive (from ajuc*) following the noun.
tjpulike: Krapf notes pulika with the sense of 'hear’ in the Kigunya dialect.
asaa, from the Ar. , has here, according to Ahmadi, the force of marra = 'at once’.
zingatia (not in Krapf) is explained as the equivalent of fuata = 'follow’; it is probably
connected with zengea = 'seek’ (Lamu dialect).
Line 2.
lema, which strictly speaking would be the proper concord for neno, is not now used.5
3 L. Krapf, Dictionary of the Suahili language, London, 1882.
4 E. Steere, Handbook of the Swahili language, London, 1913, p. 229.
6 Ibid., p. 85.
171
I wish to warn her — see that you pay attention and follow God; return together with the
women:
95. Read this all ye women, so that ye may understand, and may bear no blame before the
blessed Lord.
Read: (these words are like) wheat springing up; obey your husbands, that ye may meet
with no loss in this world and the next.
She who obeys her husband, power and prosperity are hers; whatever place she goes to
she becomes known, and (her fame) is spread abroad.
She who wrote this poem is lonely and acquainted with grief: and if she was ever uplifted
in spirit (she trusts) the Lord will pardon it.
Let me give you the number (of verses); it is a hundred and one; and two in addition:
they are what I have added.
Completed by the help of God.
Notes
Line 1.
binti wangu would be the usual order, the inversion, as in line 3 (katite hadisi), being for
the sake of the rhyme. Binti (<lxD) is sometimes used colloquially for kijana (or
at Mombasa, mtoto') mwanamke. It is seen in such patronymics as Mbeu binti Sadiki.
The Swahilis frequently employ the particle wa = 'of’ as a filiative — Somorfe wa Haji,
etc. Often the connective is omitted altogether.
mchachefu is not found in Krapf,3 but cf. chache = 'a little, a few’, and mchache; it is
explained by Ahmadi as mtu mwenyi mambo matoto = 'a person of small affairs’. The
word seems to be formed from -chache by the suffix -fu in the same way as -takatifu,
-pungufu, etc.4 Here it appears to have the force of 'this trifle ’.
hasanat(i) is the Arabic genetive (from ajuc*) following the noun.
tjpulike: Krapf notes pulika with the sense of 'hear’ in the Kigunya dialect.
asaa, from the Ar. , has here, according to Ahmadi, the force of marra = 'at once’.
zingatia (not in Krapf) is explained as the equivalent of fuata = 'follow’; it is probably
connected with zengea = 'seek’ (Lamu dialect).
Line 2.
lema, which strictly speaking would be the proper concord for neno, is not now used.5
3 L. Krapf, Dictionary of the Suahili language, London, 1882.
4 E. Steere, Handbook of the Swahili language, London, 1913, p. 229.
6 Ibid., p. 85.