Inkanta
Group: Admins
Posts: 1453
Joined: Feb. 2000 |
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Posted: Dec. 08 2001, 16:26 |
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Greetings!
I've been reviewing a few things lately.... sections of this forum, my ancient, reconstructed inboxes, etc. and came across several exchanges of letters from Ron van Lingen. As you recall, he's the guy who provided information about some of the Amarok lyrics. (-; I had had permission to post this stuff to the Amarok Mailing List (gee, I may have even done so??) and here too, but had encouraged him to join us over here. I suspect time prevented it, and in my own time challenges of life, I forgot to see where we were with this.
At the moment, Ron's emails are bouncing, so in the interest of time & before my mailboxes blow up again.....a millennium later, here are those comments from him regarding Amber Light that you might find of interest:
"Ekuseni(-e) is derived from the adverb kusasa, which means: "early in the morning/ daybreak". Therefore ekuseni(-e) means "at daybreak" (in both Xhosa & Zulu).....Xhosa/Zulu is a very descriptive language. "Khanya is a verb which means: "shine/ to be bright/ " or even closer: "beam forth/ emanate/ emit/ radiate light". "Kuya is actually part of the verb khanya and fulfils the role of auxiliary verb. Roughly translated it means "will". "Let us review the sentence. Ekuseni(-e) kuya k(h)anya literally means: "At daybreak will light shine/ emanate/ beam forth". If one reconstructs this sentence according to western grammar rules, it should look something like: "The light will shine (I like "radiate" more) at daybreak.
"Do you sense a deaper meaning in this sentence? It is the Xhosa/Zulu way of expressing a message of hope at the end of a dark(somber) period. The light WILL SHINE at the end of the night - there will be hope. It blends in perfectly with "Sunlight shining through cloud" and gives a new meaning to the noun "amberlight".
Ekusene Kuya Kanya indeed!!!!
M-C, searching for Ron
-------------- "No such thing as destiny; only choices exist." From: Moongarden's "Solaris."
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