While sleeping, in her sleep,
Sur Eçki saw a dream at night,
She dreamt an unusual dream.
“The dream that I dreamt in my sleep,
My partner teke[1], Alabash,
My dream I dreamt is worrisome,
Alabash, my fly-like soul has suffered.
My offspring is more than hundred,
My home is Kara-Üngkür,
I had never thought that
I would meet the hunter from Kïtay.
I’d heard before about him,
There is a Kïtay clan among the Kyrgyz,
That he is the son of Karïpbay,
That he was brought into the world
As the enemy of the kayberen.
I hadn’t seen the hunter himself,
But I’d known him for some time.
I thought Kojojash wouldn’t come
For he had no reason to.
In my dream I saw last night,
That unexpected hunter came,
While I was resting in my place,
Hiding under that kemerche,
He saw me from that Kerege-Tash.
I’d heard that he is a skilled hunter,
This lonely head of the Kïtay,
Wiped out all of my offspring,
And punished me in that way.
Vultures gathered and flew around
For, the valley was full of dead carcasses.
Please lift your head, Alabash,
Sur Eçki saw this kind of dream.
If you agree, Alabash,
We should all leave this place,
And move to somewhere else.
My dream reflects the very truth,
Why should we offer ourselves
To the actual death that I saw?
Please get up, my teke, let’s go,
In order to live without worries,
We’ll pass through
The sunny and shady sides of mountains
And reach Ak-Oyrok.
My teke, we’ll thus go far away,
We’ll also pass through
The peak covered with white snow.
Kök-Toskok, Kashkar’s mountain
Usually stays black with no snow,
We’ll head towards that direction.
We can’t just face the death
That is awaiting us.
We don’t have strength and courage
To let him shoot all of the kids
And bring more kids into the world.
Both of us are already old,
If we search, we might find the place.
Please get up my teke, let’s go,
To pure and ice-cold springs and rivers,
Cliffs and rocks where deer live
We might find a beautiful place.
If we don’t leave Kara-Üngkür,
We’ll let him kill all the kids
Including you, leader, my teke.
With no kids to follow us,
At an old age in solitude
Only two of us might remain.
Let’s inhabit the Orogoy mountain,
Let’s drink the water of the Sorogoy mountain.
Let’s find a beautiful place,
And enjoy our lives there.
If you don’t listen to my words,
He’ll cut you into pieces,
And kill all of your kids,
That evil minded Kojojash,
At this very moment
Is getting ready to set out.
The fierce hunter will wipe out
Those who don’t escape but stand.
Since I have been Sur Eçki,
I have never seen such a thing.
Alabash, your skull might scatter on cliffs,
You don’t rush upon hearing my words.
You don’t seem to like my words,
Please don’t hate me.
He is a man who hits his target,
Kojojash with an evil intention,
Just wait and see Alabash,
Will soon bring us tragedy.
His father is Karïpbay,
He’ll carve out in circle,
Your eyes as bright as a Morning Star.
If you agree Alabash,
Go and search for another place,
So that our souls don’t suffer.
To save us from a massacre,
Find a new settlement for us.
Alabash, listen to my words,
If knowingly we let the kids
To be shot by the hunter,
We’ll have committed a sin.
We’ll be saved if we leave.
The clever twister-like hunter
Might come unexpectedly
And see us at the Kara-Üngkür.
Shooting you down like a sliding mud,
He might punish you brutally.
Let’s leave and escape for safety,
Don’t let even one kid perish.
I ask you to give your advice,
Please understand my concern,
At night the hunter might set a fire
On the blossoming flower of yours.
If he eliminates us en masse,
You might suffer at the end.
Go, my teke for a scout,
Search for lands and come back.
If it’s surrounded by mountains
And its front is a shielding cliff,
If the kids can graze in a group,
Play by jumping on its cliffs
And drink its water together,
Seeing the kids content
My poor teke, we’d be pleased.
If Kojojash comes suddenly,
Your current shelter Kara-Üngkür,
Can’t properly hide and save us,
For, it has no cliff, but small rocks.”
Alabash’s reply:
"Alabash teke says these words
Not a few, but many words:
“You, the restless Sur Eçki,
Who thinks her dream is true,
I’ll say a lot, listen Eçki.
Do you really know for sure
That you and I will die?
You grew up with me,
Why don’t you quit Sur Eçki,
This thin, light character of yours.
You want to pass through Ak-Oyrok,
Your words are never wrong,
Overnight you became a soothsayer.
There is no place like Kara-Üngkür,
At an old age with no strength,
You want to kill me at the end!
One who abandons one’s homeland
Will be miserable in his life.
I have become old and weak,
Losing my strength and mind,
Instead of perishing in the wilderness,
It is better if Karïpbay
Ate the head of Alabash.
One dies when one’s death arrives,
Every creature should submit
To the will of Allah.
Don’t make me suffer at old age,
Sending me in search of a land.
If he becomes weak and hungry,
And can’t thus reach Kara-Üngkür,
Your old teke will then perish.
It is all black slope and blue ice
Where would we go running?
If the enemy hunter comes to us,
Let’s go up to that forest slope.
In searching for a new land,
I’ll have only my horns left,
Alabash will die from hunger.
There is no place like Kara-Üngkür,
Warm in winter, cool in summer,
Wide pasture is the strength of life.”
He said these words forcefully,
Whatever he says, he is a man,
“It doesn’t work, Eçki,” he said,
And got up from his place:
"Since I’ve been born as Alabash,
Kara-Üngkür has been, indeed,
The shelter for the kayberen.
Hunters wouldn’t come here,
If they would, they wouldn’t see us,
Nor would they shoot any of my kids,
Those hunters who killed my kids,
Wouldn’t return without punishment . . .”
Showing his male power,
He head-butted Eçki hard once.
Sur Eçki’s words:
“If you don’t listen to me,
If you don’t search for land,
You don’t listen to my words,
Even if I beg you in despair.
If we don’t leave Kara-Üngkür,
And find another safe place,
The thirty kids and forty çebiç
He’ll have your offspring destroyed,
Smeared the valley with fat [? Bir kerini may kïldï ].
And flooded the valley with blood,
Alabash, why don’t you listen!
You die early if you don’t leave,
Your place called Kara-Üug;kür.
Does Kara-Üngkür’s grass taste like sugar and
honey?
As if you owned it and lived in it,
Like people who erect yurts,
You say that you won’t abandon it,
Is this Kara-Üngkür a house with an iron gate?
Like a man who owns [the land]
By growing grain and building a house,
Have you made this place your homeland?
We’ll leave for a place that has cliffs,
It’s still not late, go find a place,
You, Alabash, our father.
If we don’t leave Kara-Üngkür,
The hunter came here in my dream,
My Sur teke, he shot you down,
From the yellow cliff you fell off,
He cut off your head [for himself].
He divided your muscle bones,
Onto his golden hoof and copper wrist [horse]
He quickly laid your skin out.
The 'copper wrist' is a big horse,
Still, your bootleg (shank)
Was dragging on the ground.
As for your large and straight horns,
His father Karïpbay,
Took them to a smith.
He had it chopped and boiled in water,
Made its shape smooth and nice,
Had it nailed with a silver nail,
And filled it with naspay[2].
If we don’t leave this place,
My teke, we’ll be cursed by God.
My dream that I saw last night,
Isn’t a lie, but truth.
Your right and left knuckle bones,
He took them to play ordo.[3]
Your hide on top of you,
He had its edges trimmed
And turned it into a nice pair of pants.
If we don’t leave Kara-Üngkür,
My teke, our day will be tragic.
Get up Alabash, look for a land,
My dream that I saw is such.
Don’t be lazy, please go now,
There are cliffs and wide rivers around,
If haven’t lost your mind, my teke,
There are many beautiful places.
Please search for them and find one,
If we let the kids die,
Our lives, my teke, will suffer . . .”
To the words of Eçki
Teke, listened the second time.
He pulled his strength together to go
Walking through the slope,
Teke went to many places.
He checked out many lands,
Unable to find a place like Kara-Üngkür,
This old sly and cunning [teke]
Lost his strength and got tired.
Thus being tired and weak
He was walking on the road,
The hunter named Kuukazïk’s
Eyes caught him, they say.
“Is there a round shaped cliff
To guard the place?" he said.
"This place, indeed, looks good," he said,
It had no ridge, but open field,
Thus making it easy for hunters," he said.
Alabash, who had been hungry,
Was enjoying eating
The blossoming feather grass.
He looked around himself,
Grazed a bit and searched for more [lands].
After sipping water twice
He lay down, they say,
On his side on dusty ground
The hunter, Kuukazïk who saw him,
Followed by stalking him, they say.
His black gun in his hands,
He loaded with powder and pushed
And prepared himself.
Many people had seen the teke [in the past],
But they couldn’t shoot him,
And were very ashamed of it.
He put in the burning fuse,
Leaning over a rock,
He aimed at his target,
He aimed the gun at Alabash.
He fired his gun booming,
But his bullet missed the target.
His bullet flew way over him,
Unskilled hunter shoots like that.
He ran because he was very scared
Without stopping anywhere,
Alabash reached Eçki safely.
Since Teke left to look for a land,
Sur Eçki hadn’t eaten any grass,
Nor drank she a sip of water.
Standing on a rock she waited,
“When will my Teke come back?” she asked,
She didn’t get down from the rock.
Alabash came rushing,
As if he was chased by something.
Then Eçki got up and asked him:
“Have you found a nice place?
You came as if you were in a hurry, Alabash,
Have you been to a dangerous place?
Have you found a cliff
With a wide river and grazing land
Have you found a habitable mountain
Where we can graze freely?
Have you found a cliff for shelter
Similar to Kara-Üngkür?
Have you found a place for kayberen
Where sixty kinds of grass grow?
Is there a high valley with white snow?
Is there a place where we can escape safely?
Leaving the hunter confused and lost.
Then Alabash said these words:
“I explored and saw everything,
Every cliff in every place.
Sur Eçki, you began a sad talk,
While I was resting in Kara-Üngkür,
There is no place like Kara-Üngkür,
In attempt to fulfill your complaint,
I almost got killed at the end.
I searched for a land, but in vain,
At my old age you made me mad,
Forcing me to wander everywhere,
Hey, Sur Eçki, it’s your doing.
If the hunter comes, he’ll shoot," he said,
"I'll stay here even if I die," he said,
"I myself became old,
Death is my partner," he said.
"My horns became weak," he said,
"It is my old age now," he said,
"Because of Eçki’s words,
I wandered in many mountains,
And thus suffered a lot," he said.
With these words Alabash stopped.
Then, Sur Eçki said the following:
"Bushes were all in blossom,
I didn’t satisfy my thirst with water,
I didn’t eat grass chewing crunchily,
I didn’t drink water gulping,
I waited for you with my eyes wide open,
I didn’t get down from the rock.
I’m hungry and I have no energy,
I’ll go to the field to graze a bit,
Get some energy and come back," she said,
"Kojojash whom I saw in my dream,
Might come this very day," she said,
She called her two kids and said:
"You two stand here and watch out
Near the Kerege-Tash,
If you see any sign of the hunter,
Inform your father immediately,
One of you bring the news to me,
If you see the hunter coming,
Don’t stay here, just leave.
Put your father ahead of you,
And go to another mountain . . .”
Thus, Sur Eçki took one of her kids to a riverbank in
order to eat some grass crunching it down (kert etip) and drink
some water gulping it down (kilt etip). It was that the same day
Kojojash was getting ready to go to hunt kayberens.