Intro
This short story comes from Moussa Travélé's 1923 book "Proverbes et contes bambara."
Summary
Every day, a group of elders meets to tell stories, many of which are not true. One old man always stays silent, and his young son wants to know why. What will happen if the old man decides to tell a story of his own?
Listen
Text
Dugucɛkɔrɔbaw bɛ ɲɔgɔn lajɛ don o don ka baro kɛ. Bɛɛ bɛ nkalonbaw tigɛ-tigɛ fo nin cɛkɔrɔba kelen. O tɛ foyi fɔ k'à sɔrɔ à denkɛ sigilen b'u dafɛ k'u lamɛn.
Denkɛnnin ko à ma: "Baba, e cɛkɔrɔbaɲɔgɔn bɛɛ bɛ nkalon tigɛ fo e kelen. O kun ye mun ye de?" Fa ko: "N'i ko ten, n na dɔ fɔ sini."
Dugu jɛlen, u taara baroyɔrɔ la. Cɛnin fa ko: "N taara kungo yaala don kelen. N ye biɲɛ kelen fili nkolonin ma ka taa à tulo n'à sen kala kelen ye!"
Bɛɛ wɔyɔra o: "I bɛ nkalon na! I bɛ nkalon na! Tiɲɛ tɛ!"
Denkɛ ko: "E! Maaw, á kan'à sɔsɔ! N'à y'à sɔrɔ nkolonin tun b'à tulokɔrɔla siyɛn n'à kɔntɔrɔn ye, à bɛ se1 ka kɛ!"
ye. I'm not sure if it's a typo or a special usage of ye that is now lost or that is/was borrowed from another Manding variety. In any case, it is clearly the equivalent of bɛ so I have rendered it as such in the text. ↩Vocab
- nkalon
- lie
- ka nkalon tigɛ
- to tell a lie [Lit. "to cut a lie"]
- kun
- reason [Lit. "head"]
- kungo
- the bush; the wilderness
- biɲɛ
- arrow
- nkolonin
-
a kind of antelope [Ourebia.ourebi]
- tulo
- ear
- sen
- foot
- k'à kala
- to sew sth; to stitch sth
- ka wɔyɔ
- to squawk; to yelp; to shreek [as a group]
- k'à sɔsɔ
- to contest sb
- k'à siyɛn
- to scratch sth
- ntɔrɔn
- hoof