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Ένα καράβι κρητικό
– A Cretan ship, nor large nor small,
just two and forty cubits long,
brought me to strange and unknown lands.
– O alien, exiled far from home,
you walk in strange and unknown lands.
– T’was here what I did take to wife
a Frankish wench – a witch was she:
she cast a spell on ships and sea,
she cast a spell on alien me.
«Ένα καράβι κρητικό μηδέ τρανό μηδέ μικρό,
μόνο σαρανταδυό πηχώ
και μ’ έφερε στα ξένα στ’ ανεγνώριμα».
«Ξένε μ’, ξενιτεμένε μ’ κι ανεγνώριμε,
που περπατείς στα ξένα σ’ ανεγνώριμα».
«Εγώ σ’ αυτό τον κόσμον ηπαντρεύτηκα
και πήρα Φραγκοπούλα που ήταν μάγισσα.
Μαγεύει τα καράβια και τη θάλασσα,
εμάγεψεν κι εμένα, τον ξένο, τον αλλόξενο».
Pontic song about life away from home, known as “kotsangél”, it is sung and danced at weddings at the moment when the mother-in-law ritually introduces the bride to her new home.
The departure of a family member, whether through marriage, migration or death, was always a traumatic occasion within the close-knit unit of a traditional Greek family.
Lambros Liavas (1989)
(From the introductory text in the LP and CD Songs about Greeks far from home)
Studio recording (1989).
