# Basque: Jarrai Beza Kondairak



## Strine

Hello - hoping someone can help with translation of an album title into English.  The title is "Jarrai Beza Kondairak" and I'm guessing it is about the continuity of ancient legends, but not sure exactly what.


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## yujuju

Yes, something like "Let the Legend keep on"


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## Strine

Thanks for the quick reply     Yes - that translation makes sense.  So I'm guessing jarrai is a form of a verb which means to continue - is this the imperative form?  I'm also confused by the 'beza' which I understand means as/como/comme.  The literal translation would then be - "continuing like/as legend" which didn't really make sense.


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## arnald

Strine said:


> Thanks for the quick reply  Yes - that translation makes sense. So I'm guessing jarrai is a form of a verb which means to continue - is this the imperative form? I'm also confused by the 'beza' which I understand means as/como/comme. The literal translation would then be - "continuing like/as legend" which didn't really make sense.


Hi,
There are various ways of forming the imperative in Basque. As a simple command you could just say "jarraitu" or "jarrai" with the meaning of "continue/keep on". In this case, however, you also have an auxiliary imperative verb form ("beza") which gives some extra information. It's actually a third person form (both subject and object), so the closest thing in English would be (as yujuju has suggested in his translation): "Let the legend..." , "May the legend...", "That the legend...".
If you go to this page: www euskalnet.net/chief/aditz/ and click where it says "imperative", you can see all the different verb forms there, including "beza".
Hope it helps,
Agur.

PS: The "as/como/comme" word you mentioned is "bezala".


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## Strine

Thanks Arnald - it was the beza that was confusing me the most;  I didn't even think of it being a verb form, just relying on online dictionaries.  Well - "Let the Legend Continue" it is.  This is for an article I am writing on Extreme Metal in the Basque Country by the way,  and the album is by Black Metal/Pagan Metal group Numen.


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## Strine

I've run into trouble again this time with "Herriko Burdina".  Using my Basque-French dictionary, Burdina means "iron" (fer), but I think the herriko could refer to either people, village, or country, heritage (patrie)?  How would I know which definition to choose?


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## monkeywrench

Strine said:


> I've run into trouble again this time with "Herriko Burdina".  Using my Basque-French dictionary, Burdina means "iron" (fer), but I think the herriko could refer to either people, village, or country, heritage (patrie)?  How would I know which definition to choose?



without context that's a tough one, IMO if it was "herriaren burdina" it would mean "the iron of the people" which could figuratively refer to a metal weapon, "herriko burdina" sounds more like "iron from the village" to me, or maybe it was just meant to translate "national metal" with another word than the very romance-sounding "metala"


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## Strine

It's actually the name of a website with listings of Basque Metal bands, reviews, concerts etc.  I wondered if the "burdina" was some sort of reference to metal, which would make sense;  I like "national metal" though - if that is a viable translation, I'll use it.  Thanks!


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