Kolvontam Y Amim - Dekhni
“Let’s keep the Goan tradition and culture alive, worldwide”
बदलKolvontam Y Amim
We are dancing girls
Type: Deknni
Source: José Pereira/ Micael Martins. A Sheaf of Deknnis,
Musical form: Binary
Literary form: Ethnological aspects
Translated by José Pereira
Part 1
Kolvontam y amim,
We are the dancing girls,
Porvotavelim. [41]
From the Mountain.
Vatto visrunum y amcha,
We lost our way,
Marvam' sampol-llim.
And ran into our low caste fellows.
Vatto visrunum,
We lost our way,
Murgonvam paulim.
And found we were in Murmugão.
Maxtorra baban y amkam,
There the big man (maxtorra = master),
Apounum velim.
Called us and took us with him.
Tumy'm amkam siripon-nnaim go.
Clients: You (female) are no good to us.
Beddan vankrhelim (vankddelim).
You with your misshapen hips.
Part 2
Ton-neam konddeachim,
Patollam vellam.
To peel off thin shavings from your bamboos -
Karhunko (kaddunko) borim y amim,
Konkonnim maram.
This is what we Konkan mhars are good at.
Amim osoitam (osoitai),
We live,
Parhelim (paddelim) garam.
In abandoned houses.
Sonsar barhkanim (baddkanim or bhattkanim) mul-llol,
What we call the world, lady,
Gonsally'm (Gonsallem) disolam.
Seems to us a worthless towel gourd (gonsallem [42]).
Full-llea pantteachem,
For our last basket,
Ot-tango ul-lam.
You still owe us half a tanga[43].
Durhu (duddu) naxleari barhkany (baddkanim),
If you have no money, lady,
Diyai gê [44] solam.
Kindly give is dried fruit peels (solam [45]) instead.