Narad, where were your various woman-friends from?

My woman-friends, well!, there have been a lot of them.

Some were from up here in Thonglong,

and some were from up in Pandotlung,

recent ones — but some of the old ones were from Lingthep.

And some were from down in Khokling.

But now we've broken off with the Khokling ones.

Now we are together with ones from Thonglong, with ones from Lingthep.

And there are a few from down in Thejongbo.

When you were together, which ones treated you well

and which ones didn't treat you well?

As for that, we were really getting on well with the Thonglong ones.

But then we separated from them, OK?

After we separated, for about three years we got along very well with the ones from Thejomboba.

They treated us well and they sent us letters.

But that one has gone down to the plains nowadays.

Only her friends are there. But we broke up with them.

So, do you like ones with pretty faces

or do you like ones with nice voices?

N. It's like this:

As far as only liking pretty ones —

the more we go on dancing with them — isn't that right? —

when we dance, whatever she's like, we are fond of her — we get more and more fond of her.

Our manners — or whatever — come to agree —

our feelings are in harmony, I should say.

It's not our manners, its our feelings — we sympathise.

When we sympathize, then our voices harmonize as well.

Now her face may be pretty or it may be ugly,

if our voices are in harmony and our thoughts are in harmony

then it becomes a pleasure to be together with them.

But in the past, your generation, uncle —

Some of our friends, what they did —

they only danced with pretty ones — I saw them dance like that.

Some danced even with ugly ones as well.

But though one might be pretty, her voice might be ugly,

and an ugly one might have a nice voice.

So that's why I asked before which women you liked to dance with.

Its like this — when I've thought about it its just that — if the feelings are in harmony.

Even so, some peoples' way is —

there's nothing [else that matters]! — whichever one wears nice clothes, OK?

Whichever one has put on a nice coat and nice shoes,

some people only dance with them.

Just so. But we are like this — what we're like — we Limbus,

even if her face is ugly and her voice is ugly, all the same if we dance and we talk and laugh nicely, day after day,

why, she seems pretty.

Before, when we were like that,

even though their faces were ugly and their voices were ugly,

when we went on dancing we saw them as beautiful, those women.

Hmm.

And those women saw us as good-looking too.

So that's why I'm asking you.

What kinds of women were there,

and how did you dance

is what I'm asking you.

The custom is not the same as before, because —

how it is nowadays —

before — uncle's generation experienced the golden age, right?

Now the golden age — when we think of it it was the golden age, but now

whoever wears nicer clothes and so on …

Well, it's like that, but that's not the point.

It's not a question of this age or that age, is it? -- we people are the same,

our flesh is the same, our eyes are the same, everything has stayed the same, no?

It's not the age.

But the kind of people, what kind were they?

How did you dance?

What kind of people were there? — I'm asking you.

Even so, now, its the same — in dancing, its the same,

only the language has got a bit mixed with Nepali — its gotten mixed in —

otherwise, before we spoke only Limbu —

that's what I'm asking.

I've seen you dancing two or three times.

You danced at Sankranti, you danced at Ramdali.

You all went down and danced at Thukyadu.

I saw you dance once at Taplejung as well.