Rand al'Thor

Rand al'Thor is a song from the Season 3 soundtrack of The Wheel of Time television series.

Lyrics

Verse 1

Old Tongue

saidin, saidin

marathde asa'jakeesh

shadanen der

ahfwade tirastien

ninto tipakatide

tipak'asa maranya

Official English

Saidin, saidin,

Don't lose yourself,

The taint is too

Drawn from the well

You did not choose this

But fate chose you.

Literal Translation

saidin, saidin

must not you forsake

(the) taint from

(the) well (is) pulled/drawn

(this was) your non-choice

fate chose you

Notes

Asa'jakeesh is joined with an apostrophe. This typically indicates either a composite term or a contraction. The contraction here may be something like "baid'asa jakeesh asa", a more fully literal rendering of "you forsake yourself" (one could also write nin'baid or ninto baid for "yourself"; baid'asa is closer to ba'asa for "your heart", which itself is a contraction of balt asa. We also have nin'balt, which means the same thing). Alternatively, it could be a more poetic rendering of "must not you forsake", as in "(you) must not forsake you". Either way, one would expect that asa'jakeesh is something like an idiomatic term meaning "forsake yourself" or "lose yourself".

Ninto tipakatide is a rather strange construction on the face of it. Tipakati means "selection"; here it is negated with -de. So with "this is" or "this was" left implicit, it reduces "you didn't choose this" to "your unchoice".

Tipak'asa maranya is trickier to figure out. Maranya, fate, is clear, but tipak'asa does not cleanly fit the expected grammar. If tipak is the verb form of tipakati, one would expect asa tipak maranya. It makes little sense to have asa as the subject of tipak, so this appears again to be some kind of idiomatic construction or composite. The simplest explanation is that it is a contraction of tipakati asa, "choice (of) you", i.e. "Fate (made a) choice of you".

Verse 2

Old Tongue

aman, aman

gougl culieb

culieb ninto

udiya waji

ninto tipakatide

tipak'asa maranya

Official English

Dragon, dragon

Look to the past,

And what you are,

Is clear at last,

You did not choose this

But fate chose you.

Literal Translation

dragon, dragon

look (to the) past

(and) your past

(is) clear now

(this was) your non-choice

fate chose you

Notes

Gougl culieb, culieb ninto udiya waji is poetically rendered in the official English as "look to the past, and what you are is clear at last". This suggests that "culieb ninto" in Old Tongue has an idiomatic meaning close to "what you are", not merely "your past", in this context. The "what you are" here refers to Rand's role as the Dragon, not merely the fact that he is the Dragon. This makes particular sense within the context of the Wheel of Time, since the Pattern repeats across turnings of the Wheel, and so "your role (in the Pattern)" and "your past" are functionally pointing to the same thing. "Your past" here may mean "your entire past throughout the turnings of the Wheel", not just Lews Therin Telamon.

Chorus

Old Tongue

sheya rahien

aman thamel

xurzan dival

mengae tia makitai

Official English

Bring the dawn,

Young Dragon

Champion of Light,

Bound to the Wheel

Literal Translation

bring (the) dawn

young dragon

representative (of the) light

bound to (the) Wheel

Notes

No additional notes for this section.