E, malahelo ô! e malahelo ô!
Tomany alina!
E, malahelo ô ny vadiny etoana!
Tomany alina!
E, malahelo ô ny zanany etoana!
Tomany alina!
E, malahelo ô ny havany etoana!
Tomany alina!
E, malahelo ô ny ankiziny etoana!
Malahelo izy rehetra!
Ah, sorrowful O! ah, sorrowful O!
Weeping by night!
Ah, sorrowful! is here his wife!
Weeping by night!
Ah, sorrowful O! are here his children!
Weeping by night!
Ah, sorrowful O! are here his relatives!
Weeping by night!
Ah, sorrowful O! are here his slaves!
Sorrowful are they all!
A dirge with more variety and thought in it is a memorial song for a native officer named Ratsida, who died in the war with the Ikòngo, one of the Tanàla or forest tribes in the south-east of Madagascar, about thirty or forty years ago. The following is an almost literal translation:—
1.Where, do you say, is Ratsida?
The memorial stone of Ratsida
Is north of Isòanieràna,
South of Itsìmbazàza;
Vain substitute for a tomb.[1]
2.Where was it he was lost?
The corpse of Ratsida
There at the foot of Ikongo
Is food for the ants,
Lost and dead in the war!
3.How about his relations?
The relations of Ratsida
Are alone in the dark.
Given up their beloved one,
Lost and dead in the war!
4.Who then, say, are the desolate?
The friends of Ratsida
Look about them in vain,
For dead is their loved friend,
His remains not come from the war!
- ↑ It is considered by the Hova that to die away from home, so that the corpse cannot be buried in the family tomb, is one of the greatest misfortunes that can befall one. Of course this sometimes occurs in the wars, but usually the body, or at least the bones, are carefully brought even for hundreds of miles up to Imérina to be buried in the sepulchre of their fathers. The memorial stone of Ratsida is a massive slab of dressed granite set up on the roadside on the south-west of Antanànarìvo.
