Song:Caisen'Shar
Caisen'shar is a song from the Season 1 soundtrack of The Wheel of Time television series.
Lyrics
Verse 1
Old Tongue
wabunye al culieb
Official English
Calm and safe
Our memories of home
A beacon to the past
Our anchor to the past
Literal Translation
calm and safe
our memories of Manetheren
beacon of the past
anchor of the past
Notes
This verse contains three different uses of -ye suffix words: biftye, mahdye, and wabunye. The -ye page contains details on the usage here (and across other examples), but the general pattern is:
Bift (still) becomes biftye (calm). Mahdi (seeker) becomes mahdye (beacon). Wabunen (connection) becomes wabunye (anchor).
In each case, a material or physical thing becomes a more immaterial or conceptual thing.
Verse 2
Old Tongue
Official English
Awake
Between day and night
Our bloodlines destined
For growth, for growth
Literal Translation
awake
between day and night
our bloodlines destined
for growth, for growth
Notes
Shari (bloods) means specifically blood as in familial blood ties, that is, bloodlines. Maral is connected to maranya[n] (destin[y/ies]), tamaracad (pattern), and perhaps even marath (must).
Scrup is the word for "between". It is seen used two ways across the corpus:
Nag scrup anfear — "day between night" — between day and night.
Jaendar scrup hirato mist balt ti souvra — "find between middle space heart to mind" — find middle ground between heart and mind (from Andor).
In the compressed form used here, scrup is placed between the nouns it is comparing. In Andor, it is instead positioned outside the two nouns, which are joined by ti (to). This is distinct from English, where we join the nouns of "between" with "and".
Verse 3
Old Tongue
Manetheren bebak
mandye al culieb
wabunye al culieb
Official English
Quiet Two Rivers
Gives strength to our bond
A beacon to the past
Our anchor to the past
Literal Translation
quiet Manetheren
strength to our blood bond gives
beacon of the past
anchor of the past
Notes
No additional notes for this section.
Verse 4
Old Tongue
fel chinnari maral
ni tel'rhiod, tel'rhiod
Official English
We pass through the current
Our bodies destined
To dream, to dream
Literal Translation
we pass through (the) current
our bodies destined
for (the) unseen world, unseen world
Notes
Ahenila iro allende is nonstandard word order; it would typically be ahenila allende iro. As is often the case, the word order is adjusted for the melody. Here it is rather more unusual because the subject and object are positioned together relative to the verb.
Tel'rhiod is a contraction of Tel'aran'rhiod, used for melodic reasons most likely. However, it presents the opportunity to scrutinize the etymology of Tel'aran'rhiod. Rhiod is "world"; aran is "right-handed"; tel is likely short for telio, "transparent/invisible/unseen". So, "unseen right-handed world". It has been speculated that the "right-handed" component is a nod to the right hemisphere of the brain being associated with high activity during dreaming due to its functions. Whether this is true, we do not take a firm stance upon.