Did you know that I am working on a Mohegan language revitalization project for my people? No? Yes. I am. I didn’t plan on doing it, but circumstances landed it in my lap. I spent a lot of my time trying to think of things for it and ways to get my people to participate.
For a starter language project I took the old song Bella Ciao up. I realized, hey… this could work. I’ve been wanting to do a new song, and… I’ve always wanted to incorporate my people’s language. It’s perfect. I changed the lyrics and then translated the Bella Ciao part, the chorus, into Mohegan. I’ve been waiting to hear from the project’s language helper if I got it right and… I didn’t. But by luck I managed to do a translation that still worked. I wanted it to say Farewell my love (lover), but instead it’s Farewell love.
I’ve been sitting on this for a couple of years now. It’s a filk based from Johnathon Coulton’s Want You Gone from the Portal 2 game. The reference is the book Everafter by Kim Harrison.
I tried recording it, going to keep the official recording only here, but it doesn’t sound right no matter what I do. In the instrumental versions I was able to find, the sound is very techno – considering the original is from the point of view of a testing robot. In my version, I would prefer a simple guitar. I don’t play guitar. I barely play tambourine. So uh… can’t happen.
So here are the lyrics and a raw recording of me just singing it. And I am… moving on.
Moving On
Now you’re leaving again.
I thought we’d last forever
I couldn’t see you for what you really were.
Then I fell for your tricks
And when I started falling
I found my heart falling down out of the bliss of love
You got your little life still
How is that working out?
I’ll just leave you to live it
Cuz I only want to move on.
What the hell is the deal?
You need to find a hobby
Something better then selling bits of me
You’ve ruined so many lives
I hope there is some justice
Maybe what you did to us happens right back to you
God what did I see in you?
I can’t remember now.
They say you’re Newt’s familiar
But I only want to move on.
If it were not for Trent
You’d be a rotting carcass
But I guess I have things to thank you for
I’ve learned a lot by you
Made friends with elves and demons
And found a new resolve I thought I could never know
