Early Quenya
oilima markirya (intermediate version)
Oilima Markirya (Intermediate Version)
Elements
Word Gloss máno kiluvando ninqe lutya kirya wilwarindon “*who shall see a white ship sailing like a butterfly” laivarisse lúnelinqe talalínen tinwelindon? “*in the blue-flowing sea with sails like stars?” vean san falastuváre alkalótefalmarínen “*the sea then will surge with waves like shining blossoms” ar i·kiryo kaluváre talain kulukalmalínen “*and the sails of the ship will shine with golden lights” ar i·súru laustuváro lintataurelasselindon “*and the wind will roar like many forest leaves” ondoin mórin ninkuváron, núni silmerána tindon “*the dark rocks will shine white, shining under the gleaming-moon” kaivon nyúken i·sapsanta silmerána númetár “*the gleaming-moon goes down like a corpse into the grave” hísimandulómi anta móri rauqi n·Ambalár “*the black mist-clouds of hell come rushing from the East” taitelúmen san tollanta ranka naiko lunganár “*the firmament then leans sickly on broken hill[s]” ma kaire laiqen ondolissen kirya maita? “*does a ship lie maimed on green rocks?” karnevaite úri kilivande hísen nie nie nienaite “*red-skied the sun will gaze through a haze of tears” ailinissen oilimaisen “*on the last shores” ala hui oilimaite “*before the last night” ala hui oilimaite “*before the last night” alkarissen oilimain “*in the last rays of light” ala hui oilimaite “*before the last night” ailinissen alkarain “*upon the shining shore”
This is the seventh draft of the Oilima Markirya poem (OM1g). As noted in the entry for that poem, this draft seems to be a bridge between the first version of the poem and the version presented with Tolkien’s “A Secret Vice” essay. It is sufficiently different from the other versions that I am discussing it in its own entry.
The Qenya text presented here is from PE16/77, but most of the couplets have been combined to produce more complete phrases. The original poem used an unusual, Finnish-like orthography for the Qenya; I've normalized back to more ordinary Qenya spelling (the originals appear in the discussion of the individual phrases). The translations are my own, which I cherry-picked from the various English translations of the poem based on what seems to fit is best. My analysis largely follows that of the editors of the Early Qenya Poetry article: Gilson, Welden, and Hostetter (PE16/77-80).