NYAKUNGIZHI (ANIMALS) - CINI (Edible Cricket)

NYAKUNGIZHI (ANIMALS) - Gyama (Chameleon)

FINIZHI KIN NUPE (PLANTS OF NUPE LAND) - Lakanko (Wild Gooseberry)

FINIZHI KIN NUPE (PLANTS OF NUPE LAND) - Goyigungbo (Jimson Weed)

FINIZHI KIN NUPE (PLANTS OF NUPE LAND) - ÉYÉKOSUNDANGI (ROSARY PEA)

FINIZHI KIN NUPE (PLANTS OF NUPE LAND) - Etigbarabá (Bitter Lemon)

KAYE (NUPE POEM): EGANTA NYAKAGI (PEN CONFESSION)

Kayekaci

Isyaku Bala Ibrahim

Musukanna na è lotun woncinko na mi yi ò
Yagi gusa
Egi kpansanná

Tun-à-lo gá mi yi ò
Mi è ge enya
Mi ma è nyì enya
Mi à yizhe sà
Mi à yizhe nyì

Yekpa dèdè na è ma etun swakwa na
Mi ma à gunbe yekpa bodi
Na à tsoci mi gbadza na

E lugwa mi kpé ye ti
Nyakagi ndondo yi be tsoci ù nyi
Mi ma à bagwadan tsoci dèdè ò
Na à lefi Sòkó zhe edzo na

Tsoci na è la mi lá gurawó
Ke kunsa lá èdo guzha na
Guta gonyi ò
Wun jin mi ka gbóta
Wangi gonyi ò
Wun jin mi ka dèdè

Mi è nyì enya gán radi
Radi gá enya tegun
Mi è la ù wu kponyi

Mi le eba ye be à re
Wunga la mi ce tùn egya wunjin ecin gbani
Yekpa tsoci mi zhegba
Ce pama be tankpolo-tanza nyi ò
Wurunyebo ci à zhe eya ya wun ò

Tsoci mi wun à mi jingun
Mi à zhe tsukun egunjin
Mi è wa zhizhin yizhele mi gancin
Zhi à bò mi nyi ò
Da kafina mi tan yizhe fi na.

Translation:

PEN CONFESSION
By
Isyaku Bala Ibrahim

I’m little but mighty
The grandchild of bamboo
The progeny of stalk

I’m a doer
I better thing
And spoil thing
I better the world
And spoil it

Bad thought ruin work
I have met one
That has consumed my master

Let me educate you
every pen has its master
And I’m a victim of a bad master
That plays with peccadillo

A master that made me emptied treasury
As rat deals with groundnuts
I ought to write three
But made me write six-thousand
I ought to better my work
But made me spoil it

I destroy more than a meteor
If a meteor were to cripple a thing
I will completely destroy it

I’m blind
I vomit blood
Not ink now
Caused by my master’s thoughts
Who has made bribery a partner
And corruption a friend

I have been cheated
Turned into a tool of cheat and wickedness
I need my life back
I need a saviour
Before I bury the world

KAYE (NUPE POEM): EGBAZUN YA WE (Falling for You)

by 

Isyaku Bala Ibrahim

Egbazun Ya We

Bolo-bolo jin nyá we

wun à mi kugba dankin

Boye ci à nyagban mi gbadza

Jin karanyi

boye è gan

Esungan boyeci

wunjin bayiba re

wun ma jin boyibali à

Cincin gá wun è yi wun ò

Mi à fa wuru na

cincin kan na

Mi à le gun kata na

Cincin tú na

Yizhe eza gubà nana

Zhiko gá yi enábán a ò

Na è ye dzodzo daga sìsábó lo dzakanbó na

Na la kagbo be bola è won dozhigun

Bambe kakpe nyi

Oh! Cincin kpe ayibu à

Ezananvo ma go éyéshi à

Ama mi à zungba zun?

Translation:

FALLING FOR YOU

Your character

Has shattered my wings

As my heart is wrapped in likeness

Tread slowing

Love warns

Your stubbornness

Is not weakness

Your disturbance is care

I will rest in the shed

Put up by your love

And sleep in the hut

Built by it

In this world of ours

Darkness is light

And we play our adulthood as infant

As strength and weakness alternates

Unnoticed

Oh! Love sees no weakness

As hatred appreciates no pampering

But I’m I in love

NUPE LANGUAGE DICTIONARY BY ALEXANDER W. BANFIELD

The book was written by the famous Canadian evangelist, Alexander W. Banfield who stayed in the Nupe town of Tsonga in the current Kwara State of Nigeria for over two decades and wrote several books in Nupe language including this one. This is the volume I of the two volumes written by the same author. 

It is a 514 page dark-green tome of the Nupe to English dictionary published in 1914 by the Niger Press, Tsonga owned and operated by the same author. 

It foreword was written by Thos E. Alvarez, the then Secretary of the Northern Nigeria C.M.S Mission.