Mãy-paygêr asat bara zotam, punn hanv bhik magun khatam
literally means, “My parents have a dozen yokes but I beg and eat”. The English word “yoke” here means, “a
pair of
animals yoked together” (Oxford Dictionary) and that’s the exact meaning of the Konkani word,
zot . Zot is neuter in gender, and
zotam is the plural of
zot.
Mãy means ,”mother” and pay stands for “father”, so Mãy-pay
denotes “parents”. The suffix
gêr stands for “in the house of” or “at the place of”, so
mãy-paygêr means “at my parents’ place”.
Gêr is almost exactly equivalent to the French
chez de and is very frequently used in Konkani. So
amgêr stands for “at my place” or “at our place”, tum
gêr, “at your place” and
tangêr, “at his/her/their place.”
Asat, as you know, is the formal and written form of the colloquial
ahat, while
bara, which literally means twelve, stands for “plenty of” or “umpteen.”
Bhik is a noun meaning alms and
magunk is to ask. But
bhik magunk,
as a phrase, means to beg. So
hanv bhik magun khatam means “I beg and eat.”
Magun is the past participle of
magunk, and although
bhik magun doesn’t have an exact English equivalent, its literal English translation would be “having asked for alms”.
The proverb tries to portray quite a common situation wherein a member of a family or any other close group is languishing out of some deprivation, whereas the rest of his family or close associates enjoy the best of privileges. It would appear that the proverb evolved from the parable of the prodigal son, whose feelings it seems to reflect.
