The Black Ajah
The Black Ajah is a song from the Season 2 soundtrack of The Wheel of Time television series.
The official lyrics of this song are misaligned with the Old Tongue, and the Old Tongue verse ordering itself appears to be incorrect. Below, we break the song into four unique verses. The actual structure of the song appears to be:
V1 (x2), V2, V3, V4 (x2), V2, V2, V3
The official lyrics instead indicate:
V1 (x2), V2 (x2), V4 (x2), V2, V3, V4, V3
The official English lyrics are printed below for reference, but in the verses here we choose the most appropriate official English to align with each unique verse, as the official English in fact includes multiple English renditions for the same Old Tongue lines.
Official English (*)
Forsaken all three oaths,
We live to serve the Dark One,
In shadowed halls and corridors
We will masquerade
(x2)
Darker than deepest night
Unknown to Aes Sedai
In the Shadows we fight
For the fall of the light
(x2)
Our whispers will deceive
With murmured tones we mislead.
We are Darkfriends whose words pretend
We will masquerade
(x2)
We silently survive
Beware of our great might
In the Shadows we fight
For the fall of the light
Darker than deepest night
Unknown to Aes Sedai
In the Shadows we fight
For the fall of the light
Our whispers will deceive
With murmured tones we mislead.
We are Darkfriends whose words pretend
We will masquerade
Darker than deepest night
Unknown to Aes Sedai
In the Shadows we fight
For the fall of the light
Lyrics
Verse 1
Old Tongue
Official English
Forsaken all three oaths,
We live to serve the Dark One,
In shadowed halls and corridors
We will masquerade
Literal Translation
forsaken all three oaths
(we) live (for) the dark one served
in halls shadow filled
we masquerade
Notes
Jakeesh zaffi treye'gurupa does not follow the usual OVS word order, but this appears to be to fit the melody.
Sora sedane Shai'Tan is again not OVS. Sedane also appears at face value to be a past-tense version of the verb form of sedai, which might imply the present verb form of sedai is sed or seda. In this case, it appears that the simplest interpretation of sora is that here it is functioning as a verb "to live" rather than as a noun "life". If we presume that sedane Shai'Tan is in OVS, then it reads "live the dark one served", or "(we) live (for) the dark one served", i.e. "we live to serve the dark one". A strange, poetic construction.
The phrase "shadar taatin" serves as an extended adjective "shadow filled". We see the general rule of placing adjectives after nouns chaining, where we are describing costra (halls) as "shadow filled" rather than "filled with shadows".
Finally, we see the interesting compound verb ancheta daienne, "mask dance", which is translated as "masquerade". Again, OVS is dropped due to the melody.
Verse 2
Old Tongue
sa fonnai shadar taatin
Official English
Darker than deepest night
Unknown to Aes Sedai
In the Shadows we fight
For the fall of the light
Literal Translation
(in) darkness people (of the) shadow
all knowledge (in) darkness
in places shadow filled
we fight (to) break (the) light
Notes
Aes'sanasant zamon appears to literally mean "all knowledge (in) darkness", but here it seems to be a contraction of Aes Sedai sanasant sain sa zamon, or "the knowledge of the Aes Sedai is in total darkness", i.e. a colorful way to say "unknown to the Aes Sedai".
Verse 3
Old Tongue
sa fonnai shadar taatin
(iro) alget yugen dival
Official English
We silently survive
Beware of our great might
In the Shadows we fight
For the fall of the light
Literal Translation
keep quiet
our strength continues
in places shadow filled
we fight (to) break (the) light
Notes
Here we see danila, a verb introduced in the show and used extensively, employed in two distinctive but similar ways: danila bebak invokes it as "keep", as in "keep doing"; and frenya'fel danila uses it to indicate that frenya'fel (our strength) is continuing, maintaining.
Verse 4
Old Tongue
iro atha'an shadar
pala'daienne ancheta
Official English
Our whispers will deceive
With murmured tones we mislead.
We are Darkfriends whose words pretend
We will masquerade
Literal Translation
our whispers, lies
lead astray with speech
we people (of the) shadow
masquerade (with) words
Notes
Here we see nosanen, a form of nosane which seems to function as a participle.
Pala'daienne ancheta is likely a contraction of palatun daienne ancheta, "word dance mask", or "masquerade (with) words".