Translations of Odes and Rapsodies
-- Translations and additional comments on the Greek subjects of Odes and Rapsodies. --
By Pericles Kondos
ODES
1. 40 Pallikaria (40 Young men).
40 young men form Levadeia go to conquer
Tripolitsa. In their way they meet an old man.
"Good day to you, old man", "Welcome, my youths;
where are you going, young men? Where are you
going, my youths?" "We are going to conquer
Tripolitsa."
This is one of the best-known traditional songs,
and refers to an incident during the last years
of 18th century or early 19th; Lebadeia is in
central Greece, Tripolitsa in the center of the
Peloponnese. The geography does not make sense,
but I have read that the song refers to a small
village near Lebadeia, called Drombolitsa, which
is abandoned now and only confused with
Tripolitsa because of the similar names. The poem
is longer: The 40 were caught by the authorities,
and when the old man heard it, he went to the bey
of the place and demanded their release: "I am
Tzavellas, the leader of the klephts, and if you
don't give them to me, I will burn your village."
(Klephts were the guerrilla fighters against the
Ottomans.)
2. Neratzoula (Little Bitter-Orange Tree)
"Bushy Neratzoula, where are your flowers,
neratzoula? Where is your former beauty? Where is
your beauty?" (there are different words for the
two "beauty"s) "The North Wind blew and shook
them off, neratzoula. I beg you, my North Wind,
blow quietly, neratzoula."
The repetition of a word (here "neratzoula") is
quite usual in folk songs, although it is simply
parenthetic and is not connected with the rest of
the phrase. After all, the North wind stuff is
told by the tree to the passer-by.
3. Choros tis Photias (Fire Dance).
Original composition.
4. I Kolokotronei (The Kolokotronis family).
"The sun shines on the mountains; it shines on
the valleys. That's how the klepht family of the
Kolokotronis shines, who have the large amounts
of silver, the silver swords. They don't deign to
set foot on the ground. They go to church on
horseback; they worship the icons on horseback;
they take the sacred bread from the priest's
hand on horseback."
The Kolokotronei were so important that they
didn't simply have riches; they had *THE* riches.
The use of the definite article emphasizes their
singular place in the folklore, as does their
outrageous behavior in church, which among other
things is impossible, since people worship the
icons by bowing and kissing them; how could they
do it while riding a horse?). Kolokotronis was an
important family of klephts, several generations
of them were famous, and the most famous was
Theodore Kolokotronis who was the greatest hero
of the War of Greek Independence in the 1820's,
but they were not particularly rich. But there
are many legends about the family. According to
one of them, the name (which sounds as if it
contains the words kolos (meaning ass) and
kotroni (meaning stone) came from an incident
when one of them was shot in the ass during a
battle and since the spectacle was not exactly
dignified he sat on a stone to hide his bloodied
ass!
5. To potami (The river)
"River, {tzanem} my river {hai, hai}, my river,
when you swirl and beat and wave, take me, tzanem
my river, hai hai, take me with your waves and
your turns, my river."
The words in {} have no meaning in Greek (tzanem
sounds Turkish), but as usual, they are there
for the sound, plus you have constant
repetitions.
6. I rizes (The roots)
Composed by Vangelis.
7. Miroloi. (Lament)
"Little white fisherman's boat, why are you
decorated?" "His mother has decorated me, and she
sends me into the black earth." "Don't cover me,
sky; don't press me, soil; because I am not done
enjoying my youth yet" "Which sky, which sea,
which fountain doesn't turn dark? Which mother
loses her child and doesn't melt from sorrow?"
Oh boy I'm not sure who says what to whom here.
It seems somebody asks the boat; the boat
answers, and then the dead fisherman asks the sky
and the earth not to be buried, and then somebody
makes the general remark that the entire
nature mourns the guy and a mother whose child
dies will melt from sorrow. I left the word
construction as close to the original as possible.
8. O Menousis
Menousis, Mpirmpilis and Mehmet-aga, went to the
wine-seller's to eat and drink. While they were
eating, while they were drinking, somebody
started talking about beautiful women. "What a
beautiful wife you have, Mehmet-aga!" {There is a
mistake here, because the song is about Menousis
and his wife; it should be Menousi-aga, the "aga"
simply a polite addition and not the actual title
of Aga.} "Where have you seen her? How do you
know her and speak about her?" "I met her
yesterday by the well while she was drawing
water, and I asked her for a little kiss and she
gave it to me" {see note below} Menousis, drunk,
went to his house and killed her. Next morning,
sober, he was lamenting her: "Get up, my duck;
get up, my goose, get up and change your clothes,
so that the youths will see you and rejoice!"
NOTE: Vangelis has taken liberties here; the
words should be: "I met her yesterday by the well
while she was drawing water, and I asked her for
water and she gave me, and I gave her my
handkerchief and she washed it, and I asked her
for a little kiss and she gave it to me", and
later, it should be "so that the youths will see
you and burn [presumably from desire], and I will
see you and rejoice" and the kissing part is
doubtful; because according to the standards of
the time he would have been quite justified in
killing her if she had kissed another guy and he
bragged about it, and of course he wouldn't want
other young men to enjoy her beauty! (I read
recently that in folk poetry, giving a
handkerchief and having it washed was a euphemism
for having sex). The song must refer to a real
incident, and the existence of the Turkish
Mehmet-aga means it was before 1820.
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By Pericles Kondos
RHAPSODIES
1. Ti Ipermaho Stratigo (To the defending female general) (Music).
The hymn is part of the "Cheretismi" (literally
"Greetings", but here meaning "Hail Mary"s). In
the early 7th century Konstantinople was besieged
by the Avars while emperor Heraclius was missing
fighting the Persians (to recover the Holy Cross,
says the propaganda) and legend says that the
Virgin Mary appeared on the walls of the city as
a huge female warrior and wherever she passed the
besiegers died, so they lifted the siege. The
patriarch of Konstantinople immediately composed
a big poem-hymn consisting of 24 stanzas (each
starting from one letter of the Greek alphabet)
praising her and the very same night they sang it
in churches without sitting throughout the
night (So it was called "O Akathistos Ymnos", the
non-sitting hymn). No, I don't believe it either,
but it's a nice story. Anyway, now the poem
embellished with lots of extra stuff is sung
every Friday during the Lent (6 letters every day
for the first 4 Fridays and the entire poem
during the 5th), and this services are called
"Cheretismi"; this is the basic hymn (not part of
the poem though). So it is both happy and
martial. The words are omitted by Vangelis but
they are along the lines "Let's thank the
defending [she-]general because she saved her
city from disaster, and since you are so
powerful, liberate me from all kinds of dangers
so that I will yell to you "Hail, unmarried
bride". ["Unmarried Bride" is an oxymoron in Greek
(Nymphe Anympheute), and it's a name for V.M.
because according to Orthodox teaching she didn't
get married to Joseph.]
2. Oh, glyky mou Ear (Oh, my sweet spring [the season])
This is sung during the Thursday before Easter
and it is supposed to be the lament of virgin
Mary when she saw the dead Jesus.
(Words:) The perfume-bringing women were
sprinkling the grave with perfumes, having come
very early in the morning; and your all-holy
mother was lamenting, seeing you, Word, dead. And
the young girl [this still means the V.M., never
mind how old she was!] cried, with warm tears,
and emptying her insides - "Oh, my sweet spring,
my sweetest child, where has your beauty set?"
[The word used is special for the setting of the
sun, so the beauty of Jesus has set like the
sun. And of course, Jesus was the Word, as in
the beginning of John's gospel]. All the
generations [of men] were praising your burial
[unintelligible words after that] "Oh, my sweet
spring", etc.
3. Ton Nymphona sou blepo (I see your bridal chamber).
This is sung the Sunday before Easter and refers
to the parable of the stupid virgins who were
invited to a wedding but because the groom was
late they burned the oil from their lamps so they
could not join the procession afterwards, when
the groom came, while the clever virgins still
had their oil. (Of course they had taken
advantage of the fact that they could see from
the light of the stupid ones, and anyway the
fault was the groom's, since he was late, but I
understand it means that a good Christian should
always be prepared because you never know when
the second coming will be here.)
Words: I see your bridal chamber decorated, my
Savior; but I have no clothes [appropriate] to
come inside. Please, make the clothes of mysoul
shine, oh Lightgiver, and save me.
4. Rapsodia (Rhapsody)
Probably a Vangelis composition.
5. Tin oreotita tis Parthenias sou (The beauty of your Virginity).
Words: [When Gabriel saw] the beauty of your
virginity and the super-shining of your chastity,
surprised he cried to you, mother-of-god: (But we
don't learn what Gabriel said, at least here.)
6. Christos Anesti (Christ is risen)
This is the basic Easter hymn. Background: Easter
is the biggest religious holiday in Greece, much
bigger than X-mas; also it is later than the
Catholic Easter, so the weather is good enough
for the celebration to be outdoors. The liturgy
is at midnight, and everybody has a big candle.
At some point the lights go off, and the priest
lights his candle from the
lamp-that-never-goes-off and then the priest
lights the candles of the nearby persons and they
give the light to others and soon everybody has a
lit candle and tries to avoid turning into an
auto-da-fe from the candles of the neighbors, and
at exactly midnight the priest starts singing the
"Christos Anesti" hymn, the bells start ringing
like mad, fireworks go off, and everybody starts
kissing everybody around him, and then when
people go home the head of the family uses the
candle to make a cross with smoke at the lintel
of the front door (to keep evil from entering)
and lights the lamp in front of the icons with
the same candle, and the lamp is supposed to stay
on till next year - I mean of course an oil lamp.
And for the next 40 days, the greeting is not
Good morning or whatever, but "Christos Anesti",
to which one is supposed to answer "Alithos
Anesti" (Truly he has risen).
WORDS: Christ is risen from the dead, having
beaten Death by [his own] death and having
given the gift of life to those in the graves.
7. Asma asmaton (The song of songs).
Well, I shouldn't dare translate a work of the
bible that I like as a work of art, but just to
give you an idea of what parts of the book are
included, plus it is a "poetic" modern Greek
translation so it might not be exact:
How beautiful you are, my beloved, how
beautiful you are!
Your look is sweet and tender like a pigeon's.
None of the beautiful women can compete with you.
You are like a lilly, and they are like thorns.
Your red lips are like a red thread.
Your pink cheeks behind your veil look like a
pomegranate that was cut in two.
Your two breasts look like twin gazelles that
went out to graze among the lilly flowers.
(Sigh)
Kiss me, kiss me with all the kisses you have
in your mouth make me drunk with the sweetest wine
of your embrace and your name is perfume,
myrrh spilled on the floor.
You are the fragrance of all the perfumes
together Yes, when you touch me I get more drunk
than when I drink.
My man, you only deserve to be loved.
Beautiful, flawless you are my beloved.
(Double sigh)
You have stolen my heart, my beloved, my sister
with a single glance from you, with a single
pearl on your neck.
Your two sweet lips drip honey; honey and milk
slowly flow under your tongue.
You are a closed garden, full of flowers, my
beloved.
A spring with flowing water,
A paradise of coolness, a paradise of
fragrances your every [unintelligible]
Cinammon, sweet-reed, nard and saffron,
and sweet-smelling roots, and incense, and
myrrh, and aloe, and every perfume you can
name, smells on you.
(Sigh)
Rise, North Wind; Come, South Wind, blow on my
branches, to scatter my fragrances everywhere.
Rise, North Wind; Come, South Wind, blow on my
branches, to scatter my perfumes everywhere.
(twice)
And let my man come down, to the garden that
belongs to him, to taste whatever fruit he
wants from its branches, to taste whatever
fruit he wants from *MY* branches.
(Faraway voice)
Beautiful, sweet like a pigeon's, none of the
beautiful women....
(voice disappearing)
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Latest Update: 20 Oct 1996
WEB site made by: Dennis Lodewijks (d.lodewijks@chello.nl)
These texts written by Pericles Kondos, contributed by Fergus Lalor