bayau/баяу/slowly

A line by line translation and grammatical notation of Bayau/Баяу/Slowly by Ninety One. Below you will see a series of what are called 'glosses', a linguistic term to describe breaking down a sentence into its constituent parts and identifying grammatical properties of each word. As the reader, you should use this as a guide to see what exactly each word is doing in each sentence.

The glosses consist of four lines:

• Kazakh
• Linguistic break down
• English translation from the YouTube video
• My English translation

You can learn more by reviewing some of the terminology found on the webpage for the Leipzig Glossing Rules.

After each gloss will be additional notes on the grammatical items at play.

Enjoy!

References

These resources were invaluable in helping figure out and confirm the sometimes subtle meanings and usages of the lyrics. They are ordered by perceived usefulness. Abbreviations used in the glosses are given in bold before the citation.

Grammars

• RW Kazakh: A Comprehensive Grammar by Raihan Muhamedowa, Routledge 2016.
• ZB Colloquial Kazakh by Zaure Batayeva, Routledge 2013.
• FK Verbal Aspect Problems and the Aspect of the Kazakh Language by Fazira Kakzhanova, presented at ConCALL-2 2016. (PDF)
• LC Language Canvas: Beginners Kazakh, online.
• AM A Learner's Dictionary of Kazakh Idioms by Akmaral Mukan, Georgetown University Press 2012.
• OHDM Oxford Handbook of Derivational Morphology edited by Rochelle Lieber and Pavol Štekauer, Oxford University Press 2014.

Dictionaries

• KP Knowledge Partners Dictionary, online.
• 30k 30000 word KZ-EN/EN-KZ dictionary, Аруна 2015.

Grammar Points

In order to keep the size of this page reasonable, I have moved most of the information on declensions to another work-in-progress page. Commonly seen declensions and conjugations are listed below, singular usage will be inline under the appropriate gloss. Within the notes for each gloss, some of the Kazakh may be written variously in capitals, like ГАн. This indicates that Г and А will change based on the consonants and vowels the word they are attached to (this is called consonant assimilation and vowel harmony, respectively).

accusative (ACC)

object of a verb

converb (CONV)

the converb is a marker to indicate that the verb in question is modified by an auxiliary to the main verb which supplies information like aspect (how a verb functions relative to time)

dative (DAT)

the indirect object of the verb, e.g. to whom/what

genitive (GEN)

possessor of something marked with the posessive

imperativeRM §1.3.5, 26 (IMP)

verbal mood that indicates commands ('Clean your room!')

instrumental (INST)

the noun with which the verb is performed

locative (LOC)

the location of a clause (e.g in my mind)

possessive (POSS)

a noun possessed by another noun, commonly used in other grammatical functions

present tense (PRS)

the verb is either currently going on or will happen in the future

Full Text

Click on a line to be directed to the gloss.

Ойымда сенің бейнеңді қалаймын, қалай айтайын?
Бір нəрсені қабылдай алмаймын...

Сенің баяу қозғалғаның ұнайды,
Тура қарағаның ұнайды, дəл солай
Сенің өте баяу қозғалғаның ұнайды
Тура қарағаның ұнайды, дəл солай...

Кейде шақырғым келеді сені баяу биге, дымға қарамай
Бейнең жеке менің түн-ием,
Түн-ием, баура мені, ала кет! (x2)

Ойланып келдім baby, əңгімем бар baby,
Мен алысқа уақытша аттанамын, сезінбе жалғыз қалғандай,
Сен арманда, мен де армандаймын,
Шешімін тауып алғандаймын,
шақырамын биге, дайын бол!
«Ау?»-деп, түсінбей қалсаң, былайғо:
Бəрі оп-оңай, қиялыммен "баяуға" шақырамын, билейміз түнімен тоқтамай.

Оның жүрегі нөлдей, сезім мүлде бөлінбейді,
Түн сияқты ол: суп-суық, сұп-сұлу, тылсым
Ми шимайланған сезімдермен-түрлі-түсті бояу, түсініксіздеу дəл сендей,
Сосын, екеуіміз секілді Ай мен Жердей,
Тартылыс бар, бірақ бірдеңе жібермейді.

Дереу жақында, мені сезіну үшін
Тез қол ұшын бер маған, тез!

Сенің баяу қозғалғаның ұнайды,
Тура қарағаның ұнайды, дəл солай
Сенің өте баяу қозғалғаның ұнайды
Тура қарағаның ұнайды, дəл солай...

Кейде шақырғым келеді сені баяу биге, дымға қарамай
Бейнең жеке менің түн-ием,
Түн-ием, баура мені, ала кет! (x2)

Glosses

• қалау:to want
• The present tense
  Verbs in the present tense are conjugated by dropping the final -у from the verbal noun form (the dictionary form for verbs) and adding a matching vowel and agreement marker.RM 165
• айту:to speak, commonly used in spoken Kazakh to report speechRM §1.4, 29
• (а)йін:singular optative (OPT), e.g. expressing a wishRM §2.3.9, 209

• бір нәсені:something
  'Something' is in the accusative because it is the object of 'I cannot accept'
• Can(not) do {x} constructionZB 134
  The verb functioning as {x} above is қабылдау:to accept
  This construction is formed by {x}-CONV алу-{conjugation}. CONV, the converb, is a suffix in Kazakh that marks that a verb is associated with an auxiliary verb. The auxilary verb here is алу:to take.
  To conjugate the converb, remove -у from the verb and add A. For this construction, алу is conjugated for the subject of the verb, the 1st person negative +МА (ал-ма-й-мын).

• баяу:slow;slowly
  The title of our song!
• GEN+POSS agreement
  The possessed item is marked with POSS and the possessor is marked with GEN.RM §2.3.4, 230 So in this case сенің (you) owns қозғалғаның (movement).
• Adjectives proceed the modified item, i.e. a қозғалғаның that is баяу.
• What's up with the PST (past tense) in қозғалғаның?
  қозғалу means 'to move' already, but when an action is the object of ұнау:to like it is suffixed with the past tense marker, +ГАн.ZB 128
  ұнау is always conjugated in the 3rd person when used in this way.
  An optional subject is conjugated in the dative, ex. 'Маған бесбармак ұнайды' (I like besbarmak).

• қарау:to look
• дәл солай:just so (or any other variations, like 'exactly like that', 'thus so', etc.)

• This is the same as gloss 3 but with the addition of өте:very, so

• Yes, the баяу of the title and the баяу of this line are the same. 'Grave' could mean slow, though I'm sure most people read the translation on YouTube to mean 'a place where one buries the dead'. Kinda fits with the vibe of the music video.
• шақыру:to invite (invite ACC to DAT)
  {verb}-ГІ-{person.POSS} келеді is how Kazakh expresses wishes.RM §2.3.8, 206 Ex, I wish to do {verb}. Келеді is the 3rd person of келу:to come, but in this case it is a locked phrase.
• The exact translation for дымға қарамай:no matter what comes from KP. See дым:(occuring in combination with negative verbs) nothing and қарау:to look, entry 13, 'following nouns and verbal nouns in the dative case and with қарау in the negative form: no matter what; in any case, regardless; in spite of'.

• түн-иә:night spirit
түн:night, иә is the same word seen in some Christian literature, so you may see it translated as 'lord'.

• баурау:(fig.) draw in/attract
• ала кет is not attested in any of the grammars/dictionaries I have, but RM mentions on page 114 that +А кет is mentioned in Balakaev and Mamanov as marking a limited set of verbs as an 'action that is done carelessly' (or perhaps casually/by-the-by). алау:to take away is not in the list of verbs given in RM that can take this auxiliary. However, there is an entry in KP for ~ып кет (Іп being the other common converb), which seems in line with what is happening here.
• Make sure not to confuse ала as used here with ала:multicolored, which is common in idioms!

• (І)п + кел-:the perdurative aspect
  The perdurative describes a persistent/continuous process or state with a conclusion, ex. 'been {verb}-ing'.FK, 18
• Possessive noun + бар is an 'existential' sentence, ex. 'There is X'.RW 4

• аттану:to depart
• сезіну:to feel
• қалу:to remain; to stay
  The ending ҒАнДАй is the pretendative, which is composed of the past participle (ҒАн) and a comparative (ДАй). It has a similar sense to 'as if X', i.e. pretending if the action/clause is occuring.RM §2.3.10, 26

• арману:to dream
• The second person imperative is unmarked.

• тауып ал-:to find
  RW §1.15.5 has 'to catch', but 30k has 'to find', which makes more sense here
• шешімін is the definite form of the noun. DefinitenessRW §2.5.5 can be marked with the 3sg possessive form and the accusative. The accusative has a non-standard form when following the possessive, +н.LC Lesson 2 As a result, шешімін is 'the solution', rather than 'a solution'.

• шақыру:to call

• деу:to say
деу is in converbial form, pared with қалсаң to mean 'suddenly say'. The form {verb}-{CONV (А)} қал- indicates the sudden completion of the verb.RW 110
  деп is also used to indicate direct speech.RW §1.4
• түсіну:to understand
  Adverbs of manner can be formed with CONV (А). Thus түсінбей is literally 'understand-not-ly'.RW §2.9.4
• қалсаң is a combination of қал, functioning as an auxiliary verb, plus сА, the conditional, in the 2nd person singular. The has the meaning of 'if', i.e. 'if you suddenly say "huh?"'.
• былайғо appears more often as былай ғо or былай ғой. Ғо is a shortened version of the emphatic particle ғой.

• оп-оңай:easy
  The reduplicative form of оңай. Reduplication (the оп part) is used to intensify the adjective (see line 17)RW §2.6 and OHDM 2.7.2.4
• қиял:imagination
• түнімен:with the night
түн:night, with the і indicates the definite form of the noun (the night), plus мен which is functioning as the comitative ('with', but in the sense of a joint actor in the action, rather than a tool with which the action is performed). Thus 'with the night'.
• тоқтау:to cease, or as KP puts it 'for a movement or action to come to a halt'
  Similar to the line before, this is a negative manner adverb, literaly 'cease-not-ly', so 'unceasingly'.RW §2.9.4
• түнімен тоқтамай literally translated would be 'with the night unceasingly', but is commonly translated as 'all night' (see example sentences in KP).

• нөл:zero
ДАй is found with nouns when two things are like each other. Noun1 Noun2+ДАй implies Noun1 is like Noun2.RW 272, footnote 13
• бөліну:to divide
  Note that сезім is in the nominative implying that the feelings are the singer's
• None of this is gender marked, I'm using 'her' here because that is what the provided translation gives.

• суп-суық and сұп-сұлу are both examples of reduplication as an intensifier
• Funnily enough, I could not find тылсым in KP or 30k, but I did find it on Wikipedia.

• шимайлан:to scribble
  The ending +ҒАн represents the perfective, meaning that 'past events have a connotation of present meaning'.RW 187 In this case, indicating that the brain has scribbled and is continuing to do so.
• For сезімдермен-түрлі-түсті I am not sure what the 1st hypen is truly supposed to be doing, but I'm reading it as an m-dash (–) implying that түрлі-түсті бояу should be read as being related to сезімдер. This is further reinforced by the fact that бояу is in the nominative, if it were related to шимайланған as сезімдермен is, one would expect it to be marked as such.
• That said, түрлі-түсті is also in KP under түрлі as 'multicolored'.
• түсініксіз:incomprehensible
+ДАу is the diminuative marker, indicating that something is small
• The suffix ДАй as seen previously, indicates the comparative, the other noun being the multicolored feeling paint the brain scribbles with.

• екі:two + the collective suffix +(А)уRW 239
  With the 1st person plural possessive, it means 'we two', 'both of us'.
• мен:andRW §1.13.9
• жер:earth
  As in line 18, +ДАу is the diminuative marker, indicating that the Earth in this line should be thought of like a tiny blue marble.

• тартылыс:(fig.) attraction, literally gravitational attraction
• бірақ:butRW §1.12.2
• жіберу:to let go; to release
  Taken to mean that something is not letting this attraction cause us to be together (e.g. as the moon and Earth revolve around one another, but don't crash into each other).

• жақындау:to come close
• үшін:so as, for
  'Nonfinte purposive clauses are marked by the verbal noun in +(Ұ)у, plus the postposition үшін', meaning some variation on 'so as to', 'so that', 'lest'.RW §1.11 See also final clause on Wikipedia.

• қол ұшын бер:to give a hand, literally 'to give a tip of the hand'
  қол ұшын бер takes the dative as the person/thing being given a hand to.AM 27

Last Updated: 2018-01-06 22:59:31