Kitar Belau

from Mengemedaol er a Irechar by Ngirchoureng

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The subject of this song is the attack on Babeldaob by US fighter planes during World War II, as a part of the year-long siege of the island. The composer's name and date of composition are unknown, but this sounds to me like it might have been composed by a member of the Japanese army as a propaganda song to try to raise the spirits of the local people to continue to resist the Americans. I don’t know if this song was written contemporaneously with the events, as such an interpretation would suggest, or written later as a memory of that time. More info: wp.me/p6WC5Y-En

lyrics

Kita er Belau el seinendang
aki di ngara belngel a ked
aki sabisi el bek el chad
e di diak a mo tanoshimi

Asayu wa takai
hange yama no ue
tobikuru kuramang
hangesii nikizu no oto

Hutte kuru teki no
tama no nakademo
kyomo saingo no
Kuramang no oto kieru

Warera Parao no
gaku seinengdang
tobikuru tama no
Nakade hataraki tsuzuku

-----
The youth group of northern Palau
we are standing in the middle of the open area
each of us is lonely
and just not going to have any fun

From morning to evening
high over the bare hill
Grumman fighter planes were coming over
with the terrible sound of two launchers

Even we are under the
raining bullets from our enemy
until the sound of today’s last
Grumman fades away

We are students and
youth of Palau
the bullets are flying
even then, we keep working

credits

from Mengemedaol er a Irechar, released June 20, 2018

license

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Ngirchoureng Oakland, California

Ngirchoureng — Jim Geselbracht and Tony Phillips — perform songs from the Republic of Palau, written in the 1930s thru the 1960s, accompanied by acoustic guitar, mandolin and fiddle in the "old-skuul" style captured on the 1960s Ngerel Belau (local radio station) recordings. Ngirchoureng (ŋirʔouréŋ) translates to “Mr. Hopeful,” and is taken from Kodep Kloulechad’s song “Bai Derengul a Eolt.” ... more