It’s not Amharic, but the term for double meanings in this language’s poetry is analogized to “putting feather on our words” in Brandy McDougall’s books. A poet of many “name songs” in this language wrote a poem addressed to a lawn sprinkler while under house arrest. Slam poet Jamaica Osorio titled her most famous piece after this language’s “creation chant,” whose 16 “eras” begin with the “slime which established the earth,” proceed through fish and birds, and end with a royal (*) genealogy. This language’s word for sugar cane and the Japanese word for song, bushi, name a folk genre collected by Harry Urata. The epic Kumulipo was translated from this language by a 19th-century monarch whose prolific output as a composer and poet in this language includes a song that repeats “Farewell to thee, farewell to thee.” For 10 points, name this language used by Lili‘uokalani. ■END■
ANSWER: Hawaiian language [or ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i] (The word in the first sentence is kaona. The genre is Holehole bushi. The song is “Aloha ‘Oe.”)
<JB, World Literature>
= Average correct buzz position