Taiwan Indigenous Song (Amis), Mukasi (Long, Long Time Ago) | HarimauTR

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This is a tiny piece of Amis song that I learned when I was only like... 10 years old. Mukasi, means "long, long time ago", is a word borrowed from Japanese.

I hope you guys would like it. This is my first time uploading a track where I sing and play the guitar in the same time... I'm a beginner in guitar though. I used my cellphone to record this song. I didn't do voice editing such as EQ, noise reduction... just added some compressor. So, there might be some noise in the background.

I'm indigenous and my tribe is called Sakizaya, a tribe that had been forced to "get into" another tribe called Amis about a hundred years ago because of the colonists. Now, we've returned, yet we learned Amis mostly before we returned; that's why I learned Amis song (and also the language) in my childhood. Sakizaya language had been influenced by Amis language for more than a hundred years. Most of it is lost and it's kind of like Amis right now. Hopefully, some vocabularies and grammars are well preserved and being vitalizing now.

For more info for Amis' and Sakizaya's history and language, please see the links below:
1. Sakizaya People: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakizaya_people
2. Amis People: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amis_people
3. Sakizaya Language: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakizaya_language
4. Amis Language: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amis_language

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Lyrics (in Northen Amis Language):
Mukasi, mukasi
Sihabayay tu siraw say nu lutuk ku matu'asay
Mipacakayay ci Kacawan(*) tu siraw
Nengneng han tu nu maku
Awaay ku tatudungay
U dengan u siri nu lutuk
U likat nu bulad
U lakelaw nu matu'asay pitalakal(**) tu mangcel
U likat nu bulad,
U lakelaw nu siningkay malahulul i lakelal
Ho hay yan i hay yan, ho i yi yan
Ho i ya ho hay yan
Ho i ya ho ho hay yan.

Translation:
Long, long time ago,
Elders had a pile of salt pork.
Kacaw(*) bought the salt pork.
I watch him doing so,
thinking of that I didn't have any suitable thing
to buy the pork.
The light of the moon,
was the candle for the elders hunting muntjacs.
The light of the moon,
was the candle for the teens playing in the river.
(***)Ho hay yan i hay yan, ho i ye yan
Ho i ya ho hay yan
Ho i ya ho ho hay yan

*Kacaw: a male given name.
** I've made a mistake here... It's supposed to be "pitalakal" but I sang "mipalakal". 😂
***Function words with no meaning.