Oh Apa Jihojoker*

This song is a lament, a sorrowful expression of a son who was never loved and cared for by his own biological mother. From the very beginning, the son was neglected by his mother and did not dare to look after him under any circumstances. After his father passed away, his mother remarried and still continues to ignore and disregard him. As the son lay on his deathbed, he spoke his final words, asking his mother not to shed tears for him when he passed away. He urges his mother not to mourn his death as she had never shown him love and care for him in his life. The song captures the deep pain and abandonment the son felt throughout his life, ultimately facing death with the same sense of rejection.

a) The folk song presented here was recorded and translated by the singer with the help of her grandmother. The Ao tribe follows the oral tradition where any folk genre was passed down for generations through mouth. The translator interviewed some old village folks and it was found that, every folks had some little differences with the words or the tone. Since it was passed down through the oral form/tradition and learned only from hearing, the words and tones had some differences. For example, in line 5, the grandmother of the singer sang ‘Ongmok metem lisu langko okchet chano wa' and the other one sang ‘ongmok metem kiyimta lisu langko okchet chano ni'. So after some interviews, it has come to the conclusion that the differences had occurred because of the oral tradition. b) *As the song's title is not explicitly stated, the first line of the song is conventionally used as its title.