Here’s another energetic song for anyone who likes to dance. We transcribed and translated this song last November in our Saturday evening practice group. My backlog of songs from our Saturday evening praktika is quite long… but I’m slowly catching up! We’ve also refreshed our song list for 2024 because we are almost finished with our original song list from 2023, so there’s plenty more coming! Anyway, I hope you enjoy this song, “Carmelita” by Chris Kaipat. As always, Chamorro lyrics and an English translation are included in this post. Happy listening!
| Chamoru | English |
|---|---|
| Carmelita na palao’an | The woman Carmelita |
| Ai sen gåtbo yan bunita na hagan-måmi | Oh, our daughter is very fine and beautiful |
| Carmelita na palao’an | The woman Carmelita |
| Ai sen gåtbo yan bunita na hagan-måmi | Oh, our daughter is very fine and beautiful |
| Ha dingu ham nai un diha | She left us one day |
| Yan manpechao luhan ham nai todus* | And we were all struck by fear* |
| Sa’ ayu nai na familia, | Because that family |
| Mampos mamopble yan manotdinariu na taotao | They are very poor and ordinary people |
| Carmelita na palao’an | The woman Carmelita |
| Ai sen gåtbo yan bunita na hagan-måmi | Oh, our daughter is very fine and beautiful |
| Carmelita na palao’an | The woman Carmelita |
| Ai sen gåtbo yan bunita na hagan-måmi | Oh, our daughter is very fine and beautiful |
| Ha bira gue’ nai un diha | She turned back (came back) one day |
| Ya manpechao luhan ham nai ta’lu | And we were struck by fear again |
| Sa’ sen bunita yan karinosa, | Because she is very beautiful and caring |
| Ai sen tomtom yan bunita na hagan-måmi | Oh, our daughter is very wise and beautiful |
| Carmelita na palao’an | The woman Carmelita |
| Ai sen gåtbo yan bunita na hagan-måmi | Oh, our daughter is very fine and beautiful |
| Carmelita na palao’an | The woman Carmelita |
| Ai sen gåtbo yan bunita na hagan-måmi | Oh, our daughter is very fine and beautiful |
| [dåndan] | [music] |
| Carmelita na palao’an | The woman Carmelita |
| Ai sen gåtbo yan bunita na hagan-måmi | Oh, our daughter is very fine and beautiful |
| Carmelita na palao’an | The woman Carmelita |
| Ai sen gåtbo yan bunita na hagan-måmi | Oh, our daughter is very fine and beautiful |
| Ha dingu ham nai un diha | She left us one day |
| Yan manpechao luhan ham nai todu | And we were struck by fear again |
| Sa’ ayu nai na familia | Because that family |
| Mampos mamopble yan manotdinariu na taotao | They are very poor and ordinary people |
| Sa’ ayu nai na familia | Because that family |
| Mampos mamopble yan manotdinariu na taotao | They are very poor and ordinary people |
| Ha bira gue’ nai un diha | She turned back (came back) one day |
| Ya manpechao luhan ham nai ta’lu | And we were struck by fear again |
| Sa’ sen bunita yan karinosa | Because she is very beautiful and caring |
| Ai sen gåtbo yan bunita na hagan-måmi | Oh, our daughter is very fine and beautiful |
| Carmelita na palao’an | The woman Carmelita |
| Ai sen gåtbo yan bunita na hagan-måmi | Oh, our daughter is very fine and beautiful |
| Carmelita na palao’an | The woman Carmelita |
| Ai sen gåtbo yan bunita na hagan-måmi | Oh, our daughter is very fine and beautiful |
| Carmelita na palao’an | The woman Carmelita |
| Ai sen gåtbo yan bunita na hagan-måmi | Oh, our daughter is very fine and beautiful |
| Ai sen gåtbo yan bunita na hagan-måmi | Oh, our daughter is very fine and beautiful |
| Ai sen gåtbo yan bunita na hagan-måmi | Oh, our daughter is very fine and beautiful |
Notes
Interpretation Notes: If you came away from this song a bit confused, you aren’t alone. 🙂 There aren’t a lot of lyrics, so I asked Jay for his interpretation of what this song is talking about. In his interpretation, this song is from the perspective of Carmelita’s family. She is a beautiful, wise, and caring woman and her family loves her very much. One day she leaves them, which seems to be imply that she has married someone. But her family is afraid for her because she has married into what they consider to be a poor and ordinary family (aka: they aren’t good enough for her). Yet when Carmelita comes back to them, it then seems to imply that she has left her husband. So once again, the family is concerned and asking, “What went wrong? Aren’t you beautiful, wise and caring?”
It seems like a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” kind of situation for Carmelita. Oh the travails of beautiful women. 🙂
*manpechao luhan ham nai todus: The word pechao means “fast-moving, quick.” In the context of the entire phrase, we understood this to mean that they quickly became afraid. In English, we would probably say something like “struck by fear.”
Lengguahi-ta 