Title: Shü Boun keso lü [An Ancestral Love Ballad]

Language: Nzon khwe (Rengma Dialect)

State: Nagaland

Shü Boun keso lü

Lo gwa nyu ansen kehü?
Lünyu le rügü bin nyele.
Ale ketsü kegvü ruchün mvüle.
Don sen bin ara.

Kanyu apvü ajvü ke thyü nyule
Ketsü ani shü le.
Tsüge-o nsunyu bwe jwe kale.
Don sen ayhepü chü le.

Tsüge-o nsungu ho kho kale,
Rügü bin ye le.
Ale aje ami gwa mvü ai,
Gunga aje ami sho zü lo.
Ale ake sen nyu zen shwi shü me no.

Ancestral Love Ballad

Who loves me in my flock?
A young woman bedridden.
He was reluctant to go to the field.
He sat there silently.

At home, his father and mother
whom they send him out to the field.
On the way, he took shelter in a village rest house.
He sat down and wept bitterly.

At noon, the field’s feast rings clear.
News arrived, the lover’s last breath slipped away.
Despite his crude blade and spear lacking a keen edge,
In his sorrow, he sharpened and cleaned the blade and spear.
He laid the woman he loved to rest in the quiet earth

Summary

The poem Ancestral Love Ballad is a forefathers’ love song of the Rengma tribe, blending
personal sorrow with ancestral memory. It tells of a young man torn between his duty to the field
and his love for a bedridden woman. When he finally leaves home, he pauses at a village rest
house, overwhelmed by grief. At midday, as the sounds of the harvest echo, he learns that his
beloved has taken her last breath. In his anguish, he sharpens his dull blade and spear symbols
of mourning and duty and lays her gently to rest in the quiet earth.As a Rengma tribal love song,
the poem embodies the tribe’s deep sense of emotional continuity, communal memory, and
reverence for life’s cycles, where love, labor, and loss are intertwined in both the human heart
and the ancestral tradition.

Glossary

Shü Boun keso lü – Ancestral love ballad, a love song that tells of a love handed down through
generations.
Lünyu – a young, unmarried woman in her early adult years of refinement and grace.
Ruchün – an act of thinking
Apvü – father ( the male parent of the child)
Ajvü – mother (the female parent of the child)
Ayhepü chü le – weeping, shedding tears
Aje – a versatile, traditional tool, especially a type of long knife used in Northeast India.
Ami – a weapon with pointed tip, typically of steel, and a long shaft, used for hunting and
warfare.
Ho kho kale – a meal eaten in the middle of the day, also known as lunch.
Ake sen nyu – his beloved, whom he loves deeply and cherishes.