Last weekend, Lap Siu (pictured above) and his family visited Dallas to spend time with other Jarai. (There are about 100 Jarai in the Dallas area.) Lap is from Vietnam, and he immigrated to the U.S. as a refugee around the age of 18. He and I have been talking for the last year or so, but this was my first chance to meet him.

Lap graciously gave up a couple days to consult with me about the Jarai language and also to assist me in recording a 30-minute traditional Jarai tale, told by a middle-aged Jarai man, Dun (pictured below), who knows a lot of the old legends.

Part of the recording session involved going over a release form that all research participants must sign. One section of the form states that participates are not paid for their participation. Dun replied (in Jarai) something to this effect: “The words that come out of my mouth cost me nothing.”

Lap himself also recorded some rhymes for me. You can listen to one below and see the transcription and translation here. This particular one was written by Lap, and it goes along with a traditional Jarai tune. (I recorded Lap reciting the poem, too, but I just discovered that the file was corrupted. I tried to recover it from my backup, but apparently it was corrupted from the start. Anyway, here’s Lap singing it.)