Asín àti Òkéré: Why the Tortoise's Nose Is Small

As told by Elder Adeoye Olarewaju, aged 75, of Akodi-Aga, Ile-Ifẹ̀, recorded 3 February 2022. In the olden days, when animals sounded like men, a tortoise was selling dishes. One day he took his dishes to the market for sale. While he was selling he heard a rumour of a fight, and immediately left his sales to go and watch. When he got there he saw Asín and Òkéré exchanging combat. Ìjàpá decided to settle their quarrel, but he was sentimental in his judgement: he sided with the squirrel and condemned the shrew rat. When Asín discovered that Ìjàpá was being partial, he ignored the squirrel altogether, turned on the tortoise, and bit his nostrils. Ìjàpá shouted in agony and began to sing. Original (as printed by Omolaye; no subdots in the source, see below) > Call: Asín tòun t'ò kéré > Response: Jómijó > Call: Àwon ló jo n jà > Response: Jómijó > Call: L'a sín bá fi mí nímú je > Response: Jómijó > Call: Ègbà mí ló wó rè > Response: Jómijó > Call: Àwò mi n be ló jà > Response: Jómijó Literal gloss - Asín tòun t'ò kéré the-shrew-rat together-with the-squirrel - Àwon ló jo n jà they are-the-ones who together were fighting - L'a sín bá fi mí nímú je and-the-shrew-rat then took me by-the-nose and-ate - Ègbà mí rescue me ló wó rè from his hands - Àwò mi my dishes n be ló jà are there in-the-market Idiomatic English (Omolaye's translation, as printed) Translator: Bamidele Omolaye > Call: The Shrew rat and the Squirrel > Response: Jómijó > Call: The two were fighting > Response: Jómijó > Call: The Shrew bit my nose > Response: Jómijó > Call: Save me from his hands > Response: Jómijó > Call: My dishes were in the market > Response: Jómijó Notes on the translation and the diacritics. The article prints no subdots anywhere in its Yorùbá, so Àwon stands for Àwọn, je for jẹ, Ègbà for Ẹ̀gbà, Àwò for Àwo, and n for the continuous marker ń. The text is reproduced as printed and flagged rather than corrected. The literal gloss is the compiler's, built on Omolaye's English, and carries medium confidence for that reason. Jómijó is a refrain of the non-lexical kind and Omolaye leaves it untranslated; the corpus does not supply a meaning for it. The song's last line is the one that matters, and the translation cannot mark it as the punchline the way the performance does. Ìjàpá is being bitten on the face and he is still thinking about his stall. Four lines report the emergency and the fifth reports the unattended merchandise, so the plea for rescue is immediately followed by the real anxiety. The corpus notes the same self-interest under duress in the drum tale, `alo-ijapa-singing-drum`. As Ìjàpá sang in agony, the other traders and passers-by came to his rescue. But the shrew rat had already damaged his nose with the prolonged bite before he was pulled off. That is why the tortoise's nose is short and disfigured to this day.