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From Siwa to Goulmima: A Date Palm Lexicon

  Some time ago, while I was working on a previous blog entry devoted to date palm tree cultivation in Goulmima (from a text in the A. Roux archives) , I leafed through a number of dictionaries, looking for words relating to said tree. I found little that was specific to the date palm, compared to the doum palm ( Hyphaene thebaica ). Benamara’s Figuig dictionary could have offered more, but without knowing tifiyyeyt lexicon, I had no entry points. As for Amaniss’s unpublished dictionary, there is some date palm vocabulary, with some overlap with Goulmima’s, but sometimes with a different realization. I initially decided to build a spreadsheet, using the ar.wikipedia page for “ نخلة التمر ” as a source vocabulary list, search through Chafik, and map onto the bilingual list the vocabulary of my home region. Unfortunately, in Chafik, I found more doum than Phoenix dactylifera . The same goes for the IRCAM dictionary, as well.   With the recent publication of Valentina Schiattarella
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Basho: Amwan / Autumn [Tasuɣlt]

 Basho was known as haisei : "the saint of haiku !" I don't know if there are any translations of his poetry into Berber (any one of its varieties) ? I have zero proficiency in Japanese, but I thought it necessary to give it a try. Although, working from a language other than the source language is not a "translation", but more of a re-imagining. I relied on Jane Reichhold's word-for-word renditions, in her supplementary notes to her edition of Basho's complete haiku.* 


aki kaze no / yarido no kuchi ya / togari-goe
[autumn wind's / sliding door of mouth <> / sharp piercing voice]

        unfus n lxrif
        imi g ibxsi n tflut
        awal isfurusn

hito goto no / kuchi ni aru-nari / shita momiji
[person every of / mouth in be is / tongue autumn foliage]

        g yimi n ku yan
        ils n umwan
        ifriwn izggwaġn

aki ki ni keri / mimi o tazune te / makura no kaze
[autumn has come <> / ear to ask for [or visit] / pillow of wind]

        iddad lxrif
        ad ikk ġur umẓẓuġ
        inid axṛiḍ n uzwu

kame waruru / yoru no kōri no / nezame kana
[jar crack / night of ice of / awaken from sleep <>]

        istġ uqlil
        issduytid g yiḍṣ 
         iḍ n ugris

karite ne n / kakashi no sode ya / yowa no shimo
[borrow (speaker’s will) / scarecrow’s sleeves <> / midnight frost]

        riġ ad ssufdġ
        ayriwn i wugguf—
        iwri n wammas n yiḍ


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* Basho: the Complete Haiku, translated by Jane Reichhold, Kodansha, 2016
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