words to gourd dance starting song and translation

[Chicken Jerky]

Below are the words to the gourd dance starting song. I transcribed them from a tape of a powow that I recorded a few years ago. I only typed them one time through so as to avoid taking up space and time. My question is this: can any one translate this? Any help would be greatly appreciated, and possibly reciprocated with a monetary reward. I am still working on transcribing the others.

Thank you in the name of the Great Spirit,

Chicken Jerky


yo hey ya hey ya hey hey ya hey ho
ya ha ya hey ha ya ho hey ya hey ya hey
ya-ah hey ya ya hey ha hey ya yo hey ya hey ya hey hey yo
ya ha ya hey ya ya ho hey ya hey ya hey hey ya hey ho hey hey yo hey yo eeem

hey hey hey ya-ah hey ya hey ya hey ya yo hey ha hey ya hey hey yo
ya ha ya he ha ya ho hey ya hey ya hey hey ya hey ho hey hey ya hey yo eeem
YOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[tigger]

yeah it's called a vocable song adn it does not have any translation.

keith

[paraivo]

Whitewolf are you sure? That looks a lot like another song I know

[travelingmocs]

That song is a vocable song as someone else said. The Yahoooooo in the end is the wolf call. Most of the Gourd dance songs are Kiowa made, if you see a gourd dance song with Kiowa language, I have been taught that you should not sing the song. Why you may ask is because those are family songs, and you need to have permission to sing the song. Kiowa hold those family songs near and dear to there heart. Well thats a little of what I know.

tms

[This message has been edited by travelingmocs (edited September 14, 2000).]

[BrownHornet]

Chicken Jerky,

Let me first start by saying there is nothing to transcribe. The song you are reffering to is the starting song. What you have attempted to do is trascribe sounds that sound different to different people. When you put a "hey" I might sing a "wey" etcetc. These are just sounds and have no literal meaning by themselves but does have meaning as a song. It best not to try to learn songs from transcriptions. If you do then you miss the whole art of singing naturally. Letting the voice be your instrument. There are many inflections of the voice in Indian songs which cannot be transcribed on paper. This song has no literal translation.

Hornet

[bbv]

Why would anyone try to "translate" a set of gourd songs? You just let them flow!
Hey travelingmocs, did you mean to have the word Not in your sentence regarding singing kiowas word songs....

[powwowbum49]

C-J

As every one has said, those are vocables and there is no translations for them. They are sort of like what Mel Torme' and many other non-native singers do in their songs too. You no like tra la la. Oh, and as hornet said, the only way to learn a song is to listen to it. Once you do that you will begin to feel it and then you start to learn.

[This message has been edited by travelingmocs (edited December 15, 2000).]

[travelingmocs]

yea, thats what I ment sorry all.

tms

[BeadedPony]

Hey BrownHornet...
Good to "see" you back. We missed you on Labor Day weekend but fully understand why you weren't able to join us. Our thoughts were with you.

[travelingmocs]

Yea, Brown Hornet it is good to have you back. Oh thanks for your support on some of my past post but it was really stupid of me to say what I did. Well take care and hope to see you some where down the road.
tms

[Nashoba Iklanna]

Me thinks he JERKY our legs and his ??????.
This was tooo obvious guys.
He's either a comedian or a troll.