ABRIR PUNTO 22 - Biblioteca de la Universidad Complutense ...

3(X)
Y piomete amar a st¡ amado y no olvidarle nunca la muchacha de la cuenca del río Sepik (Papua
Nueva Guinea) de donde proviene este canto (en el que se apela a la madre y apareceíi rasgos de
presentación de sí misma):
Borassus palrn.
Ndepenggwulkwundi thelong-headed,
MydearSuwiÉaakw niother:
To yourcldcr brotíjer Mbawtanggcrni bandi,
The one happy aÉ cerernonies,
Pie red-skinned totemie plant of (he ceremoniai rnound, say Ibis:
1 will not lorget him.
1 will always be thinking of Mm,
Yourelder brother.
¡ will not Iorget him.
1 will always be thinking of him,
Yourelderbrother.
Borássus palm,
Takcnkwundi,
My dear Suwita’ak~s’ moÉher:
To yourbig brotherYipaÉanggernibandi,
The one happy at rituals,
The bright-skinned totemie plant, say Éhis:
1, Éhis girí, will always be
Will always be
Thinking of him.
1, Ibis girí, will al~vays be
Will al’~’ays be
Will always be
Think-ing of him. (Tu-ud. Harrison, LFM-Melan, j9)I17
117 En nota a la canción, Simon Harison, (LFM-Melan). nos aclara que la que habla “she addresses one of !er
classificatory ‘nioÉhers’ by the tolemie names (Ndepenggwulkwundi and Takenkwundi> of (he Borassus palm,
thereby identifying her maternal subelan as Nggarnbak, which has this palm as a totem. She asks her to telí her
lover that althougb she has been prevented from marrying him she will never forge him. She relers o her lover
by Ihe toÉemic mimes (Mbawanggermbandi and Yipabnggermbandi> of Ébe mbaw¡angger (a variety of cordyline
cultivated on the ceremonia! mounds in front of men’s eult-houses), a totem of his subclan, Makem. Makem is
Wc most senior subclan of Éhe same clan as Nggambak; hence her lover is her classificatory mothcr’s ‘elder
brother’. Suwita’akw isa ~vaiyepi, or Loternie tille, for lemalesof Nggambak” p. 71,