Rituelle Lieder

Ritu­al songs can be descri­bed as way a’eoio, ‘cere­mo­ni­al anci­ent song’. Com­mu­nal ritu­al cele­bra­ti­on of the home and mour­ning for the dead are uni­ver­sal across all the Na’vi clans on Pan­do­ra. They are also the most important ritu­al songs. Musi­cal­ly spea­king, the­se are the simp­lest (and pro­ba­b­ly the oldest) of Na’vi songs. They are sung in uni­son, and in a meter of three, which is belie­ved to repre­sent the tri­lo­gy of Eywa, Kelu­t­ral, and the Na’vi. They are slow and solemn in natu­re and lyri­cal­ly express the inter­con­nec­ti­vi­ty of the tri­lo­gy. The­re is no orna­men­ta­ti­on of the melo­dy becau­se the Na’vi feel that, in this con­text, any­thing super­fluous detracts from the puri­ty of the message.

 

All way a’eoio begin and end on the first beat of the meter, which is the stron­gest and reflects the strength, shel­ter, and pro­vi­dence of Eywa. In the case of the Oma­ti­ka­ya clan, the third beat repres­ents Kelu­t­ral, which always leads the sin­ger back to the first beat, Eywa. The second beat is the wea­k­est of the three. It repres­ents the Na’vi them­sel­ves, sym­bo­li­cal­ly nest­led bet­ween Eywa and Home­tree and dra­wing strength from both.

The songs also express the inter­con­nec­ti­vi­ty of the tri­lo­gy through the lyrics. For exam­p­le, in the fol­lo­wing song, which can be sung both in cele­bra­ti­on and in mour­ning, the link among Pandora’s beings is cle­ar­ly repre­sen­ted in the first line:

Utralä (a)nawm,

Ayri­na’ l(u) ayoeng,

A peyä tìt­xur mì hin­am awngeyä,

N(a) ays­angek afkew,

Mì pun,

N(a) ayvul ahusawnu,

M(ì) ayna­ri,

Na seze,

A ’ong ne tsawke.

Utralä (a)nawm,

Ayri­na’ l(u) ayoeng,

A peyä tìrol m(ì) awnga.

Of the Gre­at Tree,

We are seeds,

Who­se strength is in our legs,

Like the migh­ty trunks,

In our arms,

Like the shel­te­ring branches,

In our eyes,

Like the blue flower,

That blooms towards the sun.

Of the Gre­at Tree,

We are seeds,

Who­se song is in us.

 

The fol­lo­wing lyrics from the Spi­ral Song also reve­al the belief among the Na’vi that music is the prime cul­tu­ral expres­si­on through which they iden­ti­fy and express the link bet­ween Pan­do­ra and themselves:

Pamt­seol ngop ayrenut,

Mì ron­se­mä tìfnu,

Teng­fya ngop säftxuyul,

Mì hif­key.

Cho­rus

Awn­ga rol fte kivame,

Kame fte rivol,

Rerol teng­krr kerä,

Ìlä fya’o avol,

Ne kxamtseng.

Aywayl yìm kifkeyä

’Ìheyut avomrr,

Sìn tireafya’o avol,

Na way­tele­mä hìng.

Music crea­tes patterns,

In the silence of the mind,

Just as a wea­ver does,

In the world.

Cho­rus

We sing to See,

See to sing,

Sin­ging while going,

Along the eight paths,

To the center.

The anci­ent songs bind the world’s

Thir­teen spirals,

Onto the eight spi­rit paths,

Like the threads of a song cord.