Here is a story of competition between the wind and the sun from Aesop’s Fables, translated into Chamorro by Rita Inos. It was found in a draft manuscript among other translated works in the Pacific Area Languages Materials collection from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
In this post I’ve included the Chamorro text, an English translation, and a Chamorro audio narration by Jay Che’le. Happy reading!
This Saturday our practice group will finish reading and translating Si Kanåriu Yan Si Chungi’, so the new story for this week is a short one, about what can happen when we don’t ask for permission before collecting from the jungle. One of our aunties who regularly attends our practice group very kindly gifted me more Chamorro stories, and this is one of them. This post includes the Chamorro text, a Chamorro audio narration by Jay Che’le, and an English translation. Happy reading!
Here is a Chamorro story about a girl named Rita who turned into ash. In this story we read a cautionary tale about making sure we understand what is actually important in life. Our actions ultimately reveal what we hold dear, and sometimes it can be too late to take things back once they have been said or done.
This post includes the Chamorro text, a Chamorro audio narration by Jay Che’le, and an English translation. Happy reading!
This is the legend of Guam’s mermaid, Sirena, written in Chamorro by Dolores I. Marciano from a book I found in the KPV Collection (details below). When I was a kid I used to interpret this story as a warning to children, to always obey our parents. Reading this story again as an adult makes me realize it’s also about parenting. It’s a warning to parents to have a care for the words they use with their children, but also about the pain of letting go of them. We did deep dive on this legend with Ray Barcinas a few weeks back, and his analysis moved us and brought a few of us to tears.
So here is the Chamorro legend of Sirena, with Chamorro text, a Chamorro audio narration, and an English translation. I actually recorded this narration because Jay was in Europe all week for work and things got too busy for him to do the recording. But as soon as he gets back, I’ll have him record his narration and I’ll update the audio. 🙂 Happy reading!
March is Mes Chamoru on Guam, so Biba Mes Chamoru! What do you all have planned for celebrating Chamorro culture and language this March? On this blog, I’m hoping to share some new Chamorro stories, in addition to the weekly stories I post here for our Saturday practice group. For me, this month is all about trying to spark our imaginations in the Chamorro language 🙂
To get us started for Mes Chamoru, here is the Legend of the Coconut, which we will be reading and translating in our morning practice group this Saturday. This post includes the Chamorro text, Chamorro audio narration by Jay Che’le, an English translation, and two Quizlet flashcard decks – one for learning affixed words, and another to learn the phrase chunks. Happy reading!
Here’s a short, funny story about a married couple that gave me a really good laugh. Jay also thought it was funny, and when he was recording the narration he had to stop to laugh again because of the ending. This story is from the book “Estoriåye Yo'” by Påle’ Eric Forbes, which is great reading (at least I think so!) if we’re trying to learn Chamorro. Our practice group will be finishing up our reading and translation of “The Old Pirate” this week, but if we have time we will also read and translate this short story.
This post includes the Chamorro text, a Chamorro audio narration by Jay Che’le, the English translation, and a Quizlet flashcard study deck to learn the story in phrase chunks. Happy reading!
Lengguahi-ta 