Jarxadan

Comment

Recorded by Ljudmila Zhukova from Ljubov' Demina in 1988. The fuller version is published in Nikolaeva (1989, 2: 56). The song is related to a Yukaghir legend that explains the origin of the rock and the river called JarxEdEn (Nikolaeva 1989, 2: 6-7, 66). One variant of the legend says that there was a girl on the river Xorxodon. She was in love with a hunter who once went hunting and never returned. The girl cried so much that she turned into a rock and her tears turned into a river. According to the second version, the river Xorxodon and the Sun had two beautiful daughters. They were so cold and proud that two boys who fell in love with them turned into barren rocks and the girls themselves turned into icy rivers. From that time on the Yukaghir believed that if a girl is called JarqEdEn she will be lonely and unable to reciprocate somebody's love. The present song expresses the sorrow of a young man who is worried that his beloved girl is called by this name. The name JarqEdEn is formed according to the typical hydronymic pattern from jarqE 'ice' + the Genitive -d- + the element -En. The latter goes back to the stem un- in unuN 'river', so the meaning of the name is 'icy river', cf. qorqo-d-En 'the Xorxodon' lit. 'curved river'.

Translation

(1-1) From the bottom of the mountains, from the whiteness of the ice our mother Jarxadan quietly carries its shining water downstream. (1-2) What a sorrow! (1-3) Why did it happen like that? (1-4) The girl I love was called Jarxadan. (1-5) Why did they call her that? (1-6) What a sorrow!