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The members of "Tumen Zhargalan" (10,000 Years of Happiness) folk ensemble from Aginskoye and the artists the Buryat National Theatre of Ulan Ude. Photo: Virlana Tkacz and Watoku Ueno. communicated. Then I wrote out a rough English version, and then started working on a better English version with Wanda Phipps, the African-American poet who works with me on all of our translations. Wanda and I have our own way of working. After I write out the first draft, we sit in silence for a long time sounding out the text in our own heads. Then I scribble a new version of a line, or Wanda suggests a word change. Finally, one of us starts reading the translation out loud and the other will jump in with a new phrase or line every once in a while. We keep reading the text in this way until we both love it. And so it went with the swan song. After a while, the song sounded good in English and I rephrased it in Ukrainian for Sayan. He listened to it, saying "Mozhe buty," (could be) or "Nu ..." (Well...) line by line. If Sayan was not pleased, I could ask for clarification and then return to work on the line with Wanda. The process took a long time. The English version of the song had to approximate the syllables in Buryat and had to retain the tone of the original language. We did not have a dictionary in the van, so we had to come up with synonyms for "order" and old words for "executioners" ex promptu. There were three verses, and we worked on them for a long stretch of time. All this time we were riding down the road Balzhan-khatyn had ridden 400 years earlier. We didn't know it yet, but we were working on the first song for our new show. We didn't know it yet, but both this song and our show would turn out to be about Balzhan-khatyn and her journey thorough this area. Do they gaze from above on our land? I sing ho-hey Is that new way coming to our land? I sing ho-hey Will this way bring good times to us all? I sing ho-hey Are those vultures flying high in the sky? I sing ho-hey Do they gaze from above on our waters? I sing ho-hey Does the khan send his men to our land now. I sing ho-hey Will our people take them as their own way? I sing ho-hey Are those vultures flying high in the sky? I sing ho-hey Do they gaze from above on our herds? I sing ho-hey Are those hangmen I see coming to our land? I sing ho- hey As they ride does death ride through our land? I sing ho- hey Balzhan-khatyn was somehow impressing her story on us, just as once she had impressed her story on the very hills. The name of every land formation and settlement here carried part of her story. Later we would also find out that the song we were translating was a Neryelge — a Thunder Dance song that could lead you into the heavens. Yara will be showing Flight at La MaMa Experimental Theatre on East 4th Street in New York from April 24 to May 3, 1998 Thursdays through Sundays at 7:30 with a matinee on Sundays at 3:00. For tickets call (212) 475-7710. For more information on Yara call (212) 475-6474 or visit our website at http://www. brama. com/yara
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