Andor
Andor is a song from the Season 3 soundtrack of The Wheel of Time television series.
Lyrics
Verse 1
Old Tongue
Official English
Young lioness
groomed from birth
Where does your heart
Pull you to?
Literal Translation
Young lioness
groomed for rule
your heart desires
where to go?
Notes
Chagli and mishan are new words introduced here. The translation is relatively straightforward, but note that the official English does not 1 for 1 match a more literal translation.
One less-straightforward aspect is the use of nin'balt, a contraction of ninte'balt or ninto'balt.
The structure belo nin'balt jalou doko is fairly common in Old Tongue, where the question "where does your heart want to go?" is re-arranged to be "where goes your heart's desire?". Old Tongue often uses object-verb-subject word order, where here, the question is structured like:
(belo nin'balt) jalou doko; doko is the subject, (belo nin'balt) the object. So, "where goes (belo nin'balt)?". Then, belo nin'balt is "your heart desires". So, the question is structurally saying "where goes to your heart desires", i.e. "where goes your heart's desire?".
Verse 2
Old Tongue
Official English
Charming smile,
Sapphire eyes,
What does your will
Say to do?
Literal translation
Smile charming,
eyes blue,
your will says
what move?
Notes
We again see the contracted second person possessive nin on nin'zavilat.
Structurally we see a similar pattern as the previous verse with "kazath nin'zavilat vakar gavane?". "What moves your will says?" or "What moves your will's command?". In other words, "what does your will say to move?".
Here we see vakar being used not only as the word for move in a literal sense, but also as a verb of general action, i.e. "do". Old Tongue tends to split sentences where English might use the word "do" into either using vakar or tasu, with tasu being used where there is more an implication of creation or distortion, and vakar being used where it's implying more of a general action.
Verse 3
Old Tongue
Official English
Matriarchy
Aggressive and deadly
Literal Translation
Rule (of) queens
aggressive and deadly
Notes
Matriarchy here is referring literally to Andor's tradition of being ruled by a queen.
Shivilat and jugitsa are both first used here, so we must assume the order of them is the same as in the official English.
Verse 4
Old Tongue
Official English
Daughter heir
Find your
Middle ground
Between heart and mind.
Your whole life
Groomed to be
Find the strength to break free
Literal Translation
Daughter queen
Find between
middle space
(from) heart to mind
All your life
groomed for rule
release (your) heart free.
Notes
La'kerenya literally says "daughter queen", but might imply "daughter (of) (a/the) queen".
"Jeandar scrup hirato mist balt ti souvra" several things stand out here: first, OVS order is dropped. This is often done for better fitting the lyrics to the music, or else when the construction is more complex. Here, the subject is implicit and the object is a complex construction. "Find middle space between heart and mind" is what is meant, but we see that in Old Tongue it is being said as "between middle space heart to mind", or "middle space between heart to mind". So, in English we say "between one thing and another", but in Old Tongue, "between one thing to another".
"Ayende balt'raha" might best be translated as "set (your) heart free". Ayende can mean release or free on its own, but it seems to carry specific connotations of the act of release itself. Raha means free as in existing in a state of freedom, so it is referring to the end result of the release. This is informative as it shows there is a separation in Old Tongue between the act of releasing or freeing, and the ongoing state of being free or having liberty, whereas English collapses these concepts to a degree. Even though English has liberty and free as distinct words, we also have the word "liberate" and "freedom". So, in English the concept comes in matching sets of verbs and nouns/adjectives. In contrast, instead of being associated strictly with freedom, ayende also has associations with death (see ayend).
Verse 5
Old Tongue
belo nin’balt
jalou doko?
Official English
In the midst of politics
Where does your heart
Pull you to?
Literal translation
In the world (of the) political
your heart desires
where to go?
Verse 6
Old Tongue
kazath nin’zavilat
vakar gavane?
Official English
Not afraid to
Speak your mind.
What does your will
Say to do?
Literal translation
Unafraid to stop
(and) speak (your) thought.
your will says
what to move?
Verse 7
Old Tongue
vastri kerenya’an
shivilat e jugitsa
Andor vastri
Andor vastri
Official English
Matriarchy
Aggressive and deadly
Queens of Andor
Queens of Andor
Literal Translation
Rule (of) queens
aggressive and deadly
Rule of Andor
Rule of Andor