Nahuatl translation

[llama_nom]

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "ualarauans" <ualarauans at ...> wrote:
>

> The dwarf sitting on a tree twig (Go. tains M.-a) and resembling an 
> owl reminds me exactly of the "Wild Man in The Wood" we talked of 
> recently. Cf. Irish Suibhne geilt living on trees and perhaps also 
> the Nahuatl (Aztec) word for "demon" (= Go. skohsl) – tlâcatecolôtl, 
> lit. "man-owl", used in the Anales de Cuauhtitlan of the gods whom 
> human sacrifices were due to.

Oh yes, there's more to this story than meets the eye!  Hey, we'll
have to have a go at some of the verses attributed to Suibhne some
time (hairtins neþla...).  Meanwhile here's my woeful attempt at
Nahuatl into Gothic.  It's one of the poems ascribed to Nezahualcoyôtl.

Þaurstei du undiwanein.

Nîhuinti, nichôca, nicnotlamati,
nicmati, niquihtoa, niquilnâmiqui.
Mâca aîc nimiqui.  Mâca aîc nipolihui.
In cân ahmicôhua, in cân ontepêtîhua,
in mâ oncân niâuh.
Mâca aîc nimiqui.  Mâca aîc nipolihui.

Drugkans im, greta, þata þula,
þata wait(1), þata qiþa, þis man.
Wainei aiw ni gaswiltau!  Wainei aiw ni usleiþau!
Þadei ainshun ni gaswiltiþ,
in þana staþ, þadei manna sigis nimiþ(2),
ei wainei gangau!
Wainei aiw ni gaswiltau!  Wainei aiw ni usleiþau!

(1) Syntactically ambiguous in Gothic. Could maybe have 'ik þata wait'
to make it clear that þata (translating -c-) is the object, but
hopefully the context makes it clear.
(2) Literally "where one becomes a mountain"? Wimmer has tepêti
"devenir montagne, se transformer en montagne" without mentioning any
special idiomatic senses, but Valeriano and Ortiz de Montella render
it in Spanish as "allá donde se alcanza victoria" [
http://books.google.com/books?id=_nyaZYUGQ4sC&pg=PA65&lpg=PA65&dq=tepetihua&source=web&ots=wiHhUVqiae&sig=Kp7PYQPmV2ZMR7ATnNxZIF0gkhA
].

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