Hilichurl Ballad Selection: Vol. I

Masterpiece of the "crowned poet" of Hilichurlian! Through one anthology, scholar and authority Jacob Musk leads you into the mysterious spiritual world of the hilichurls!

A selection of hilichurl poetry compiled by Mondstadt ecologist Jacob Musk. To finish this book, Musk once walked every hilichurl tribe across the continent, slipped into every place they might live, and even deeply joined hilichurl life. For this book Musk was hailed as "crowned poet of Hilichurlian," yet clearly neither the scholar himself nor his research subjects the hilichurls cared much for the title. Though keen on hilichurl studies, until late life Jacob Musk hated being compared to hilichurls.

I:

Mi muhe ye

Mi biat ye

Biat ye dada

Muhe dada

This may be a war-song hilichurls hum before a duel; by the author's observation, when two or more hilichurls are present and one has sung this coarse song, they all soon thrash one another—the scene often unspeakably heated.

II:

Eleka mimi-a-Domu

Mita domu-a-dada

La-la-la

La-la-la

Mimi mosi ye mita

A song hilichurls raise high while dancing around a totem—perhaps a tribal hymn, joyful in mood, often heard in hilichurl festival revels.

III:

Mi muhe mita nye

Mi muhe mita nye

Muhe nye

Muhe nye

Gusha

Biat, gusha

A melancholy poem the author chanced to hear while speaking with an aged hilichurl shaman. Though the meaning of the lines is still unknown, the grief bursting from the poem could surprise the finest poets of the author's homeland (though an old hilichurl's body odor is equally strong and melancholy).