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Κάτου στ’ς Μπαρμπαριάς τουν κάμπου
Down, more, down on the Barbary plane,
the fish are getting married
down on the Barbary plane.
The ants, more, the ants are celebrating,
the ants are celebrating,
for the best man –me– they are a-waiting.
But to spite them, I did not show,
there wasn’t a shirt to wear upon the whole plateau.
Button up the one, button up the other,
button up the baggy pants bought by your brother.
When I went out and looked about me
a hare was playing the lyre,
a fox the toumberleki.
Translated by Michael Eleftheriou
Κάτου στ’ς Μπα-, μωρ’, κάτου στ’ς Μπα-,
κάτου στ’ς Μπαρμπαριάς τουν κάμπου,
κάτου στ’ς Μπαρμπαριάς τουν κάμπου
τα ψαρούδια κάνουν γάμο.
Τα μυρμήγκια πανηγύρι,
κάλεσαν κι μένα νούνο.1
Κάκιωσα κι γω δεν πήγα,
π’κάμ’σο δεν είχα να βάλου.
Δένου το ’να, δένου τ’ άλλου,
δένου του μπαμπά τ’ σαλβάρα.
Άντα2 βγένου κι αγναντεύου
ι λαγός λαλάει τη λύρα
κι αλεπού του τιμπερλέκι.
1νούνος: κουμπάρος
2άντα: όταν
Barbary is a vague folk term referring to the coastal regions of North Africa, likely named after the Berbers—the area’s indigenous, non-Arab population. Associated in the popular imagination with corsairs and slave markets, it became, for ordinary people, a mythical land imbued with connotations of the unfamiliar and the dangerous, the exotic and the salacious. Many other place-names both real and well-known are used in the same way, including Constantinople (in Three beardless gents), Venice (in Three beardless gents and Sweet slender Panagiota), and the West (in So many lies).
Miranda Terzoupoulou (2007)
Studio recording (2005). Based on Domna Samiou’s 1973 field recording of the song in Soufli, Evros, sung by a group of women.
