How oríkì is built from independent units rather than narrative sequence, and the specific mechanisms, tonal, structural, and referential, that make it resist translation.
The Yorùbá wey dem quote, the proverbs, oríkì, ẹsẹ Ifá, word list headwords, Odù names and citations dey exactly as the corpus record dem, for every language.
Oríkì no be like poem wey dey English tradition. E no get plot, e no get argument wey dey develop from first line reach last line, and many times e no even get any grammatical connection between lines wey follow each other at all. Na combination of independent units wey stand on dia own, each one na complete praise on im own, wey di performer dey arrange as e like for di occasion. To understand dis structure na di main condition to understand why translation dey hard for dis kind work, in a way wey common difficulty of words no fit explain.
Wetin Karin Barber write about Wínyọmí, wey be hunter for history and founder of lineage for Òkukù, na di clearest documented example of dis structural principle. Im oríkì dey go like dis:
Wínyọmí Ẹnipeede, Olórí Ọdẹ; Arẹ́mú, a d'ọ̀nà má yẹ̀; Ẹnipeede, ẹni tí ń f'ọ́jọ́ s'íkùn ọ̀lẹ; Àlàmú ní 'Bí o bá bọ́ s'óro ẹgbàáwó', ó ní 'Bàbá rẹ gan-an á gb'érè nínú àmúwá'; Aṣọ òyìnbó kò f'orí tì í tọ́, Wínyọmí ní 'ohun tí ó dára fún ni...'
Winyomi Enipeede, Head of the Hunters, Aremu, who blocks the road and does not budge, Enipeede, one who fills the coward with apprehension, Alamu said, "If you get into trouble to the tune of two thousand cowries," he said, "Your own father will take his cut of the settlement," European cloth does not wear well, Winyomi said, "what it is good for is..."
Na Karin Barber translate am .
Wetin e talk, and wetin e no do. If pesin read am as argument, di passage fail: e jump from praise name for war, go reach proverb talk about money, come reach comment about how imported cloth dey last, without any logical link wey tie di third line with di fourth line. Barber own analysis on dis material na exactly di point wey dey show here: oríkì get disjunctive, accretive unit structure, where each formulaic part wey follow each other na independent piece of text wey need im own background story make pesin fit understand am, and how dis units stand on dia own no match Western narrative syntax at all . Reader wey dey expect make di last line settle or comment on di first one dey use structural expectation wey di genre no get.
Di importance. Na why oríkì fit dey extended, shortened, and rearranged anyhow during performance without say e go turn to another oríkì. Di pesin wey Barber interview for im fieldwork for Òkukù tell am say im fit talk reach tomorrow, and di title of di book wey Barber write about dat fieldwork come from dat statement . Narrative poem get natural place wey e dey stop, wey be im ending. Accretive oríkì dey stop only when di performer stop.
As dem dey perform am. During family lineage remembrance, marriage, chieftaincy celebration, burial, and festival, by women oral poets and family chant performers for Òkukù .
Notes. Di line about Oyinbo cloth remain incomplete for grammar inside di original transcription itself ("wetin e good for na..."), wey no be mistake for transcription wey pesin suppose just complete secretly. Oríkì lines dey always drop into allusion wey both performer and di people wey dey listen already understand, and printed text wey cut for middle of thought na often exact wetin dem chant na im e record, no be say e fail to record di rest.
Di same structural principle, when dem apply am to deity instead of human being, dey produce text wey im translation difficulty dey teach lesson because di problem no be mainly about di words.
Èṣù ṣe rere kò burú, ṣe burúkú kò rere. B'inú bá b'Èṣù a f'òkúta lu'lẹ̀ d'ẹ̀jẹ̀. B'inú bá b'Èṣù a jókòó sórí awọ èèrà. B'inú bá b'Èṣù a sunkún ẹ̀jẹ̀. Èṣù sùn nínú ilé, ilé kéré fún un. Èṣù sùn lórí ìbàdẹ́, ìbàdẹ́ kéré fún un. Èṣù sùn nínú èso kékeré kan, nígbẹ̀yìn-gbẹ́yín ó tẹ́ ẹsẹ̀ rẹ̀ nà.
Eshu turns right into wrong, wrong into right. When he is angry, he hits a stone until it bleeds. When he is angry, he sits on the skin of an ant. When he is angry, he weeps tears of blood. Eshu slept in the house, but the house was too small for him. Eshu slept on the verandah, but the verandah was too small for him. Eshu slept in a nut, and at last he could stretch himself.
Na Rowland Abiodun translate am .
Wetin e talk. Di first two lines state Èṣù's main paradox directly: e no be force for either good or bad, na di force wey dey turn one to di other. Di three lines wey talk say "if vex hold am" come list reactions wey pass normal and impossible for physical world (stone wey dey bleed, crying blood) wey no dey build go climax; dem be parallel examples of di same point, wey pesin fit change dia order. Di last three lines come present second, separate paradox: di house small pass am, di veranda small pass am, but na inside di tiny nut e finally get space. Nothing inside di passage explain why nut get space pass house.
Significance. Rowland Abiodun and Olabiyi Yai analysis, wey dem cite inside di source, look dis one as modular accretion: different-different praise names (epithets) wey get paradox inside wey dem gather together, instead of sequential story wey dey develop, and di reason why di poem hard to translate straight-straight na specifically because of multidirectional tonal wordplay, how dem dey draw vowels long, and how e dey call metaphysical àṣẹ wey translated text no fit carry . Di house-veranda-nut sequence dey do cosmological work: Èṣù na di òrìṣà of di junction (crossroads), of wetin person no fit predict, and how ordinary categories no fit contain am, and poem wey no gree resolve na di proper form for subject wey di main character na say e no dey resolve.
Performed. During annual òrìṣà rituals, Ifá divination consultations, and before dem address other deities for communal shrines and junction, by babaláwo, devotees, and ritual chanters .
"Turns right into wrong, wrong into right" na already interpretation wey smooth out ṣe rere kò burú, ṣe burúkú kò rere, wey literally repeat "does good, is-not bad; does bad, is-not good" with one chiasmus wey di English translation change just to make am easy to read. Di real wahala with di Yoruba no be di vocabulary, wey simple throughout, but na di tone and rhythm pattern wey dey make di paradoxes land as paradox instead of contradiction, and dat kind pattern na wetin translation, no matter how careful e be, no fit carry enter another language.
Three different mechanisms dey, wey di examples above show, and each of dem dey cause damage wey ordinary word replacement no fit repair.
Tone dey carry lexical meaning wey spelling dey erase. 13-oral-literature/04-rara.md document di case of mérú (to capture slaves) against mèrù (to carry property) inside di Ẹ̀ṣọ́ Ìkòyí oríkì, two words wey look almost di same for normal roman script and na only tone separate dem, wey produce pun wey English must use two words wey no relate at all translate . Dat file example belong to rárà performance; di same tone mechanism dey native to oríkì as di material wey rárà dey perform.
Di unit dey independent, so di join-join wey translator instinct go wan put no dey there to find. Di Wínyọmí and Èṣù texts above show dis thing: translator wey dey rush put "and then" or "because" between lines dey add relationship wey di Yoruba itself no talk.
Allusion dey assume say na story wey everybody know, wey di line itself no tell. Wetin Barber find say one oríkì line fit squeeze whole incident enter four words, wey only person wey already know di story fit understand, na wetin dem treat for yoruba-oriki; when even Yoruba speakers don lose di underlying story, di line dey survive as fragment wey no clear for di original just as e dey for translation, and dat one na different and worse problem pass translation wahala .
Because di wahala na structure and tone wahala instead of ordinary vocabulary issue, dis corpus no dey try make oríkì read smooth for English where di Yoruba itself no read smooth for Yoruba. Idiomatic translation wey go arrange di Wínyọmí text non-sequiturs make e turn connected prose, or wey go find English pun to match mérú/mèrù, go mean say person dey improve di source instead of to translate am. Where published translator don already make dat kind choice, dis corpus dey report di choice and mention di name of di translator, according to di rule of di whole corpus; e no dey silently take di same smoothing without giving credit.
What oríkì are, the different kinds, who performs them and why, and how they carry history that written records do not.
The complete classification of oríkì by subject, orílẹ̀ through eranko, with a worked text for each kind and the boundary cases that show the categories are not airtight.
Bolanle Awe's case for oríkì as historical evidence, worked through two towns' founding oríkì, with a plain statement of what a historian can and cannot recover from the form.
Karin Barber's finding that oríkì in Okuku is held and performed mainly by women, with texts showing what that custodianship does at a wedding, at a festival, and inside a marriage.
The concept that runs from "so be it" at the end of a prayer to the force by which anything happens at all, why both "power" and "life force" are inadequate translations, and how ase works in speech, ritual and art.
Where oríkì with reliable Yoruba originals and named translators actually lives in print, who collected it, and what is and is not digitised or open access.