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Ο Γιάννος και η Βαγγελιώ
Giannos and Vangelio went to the same school,
Giannos to learn to read and write, Vangelio to sing.
Giannos fell in love and would take her for his wife.
– Mother, I have something, something I must share.
I love Vangelio and would take her for my wife.
And if I cannot have her, I will gladly wed my grave.
– May flames sear your tongue and venom your body,
for going and falling for your own first cousin.
Far better I get a winding sheet to wrap you in,
than wedding crowns to set upon your head.
Now Vangelio is preparing to wed and Giannos to die,
and wedding party meets pall bearers upon the street.
No one asked, no one dared, except for Vangelio.
– Whose corpse is that, so beautifully bedecked?
– Oh dark and dismal day, ’tis poor Giannos’ corpse!
Vangelio died and the two were buried side by side.
An apple tree grew out of one grave, a cypress from the other,
and when the North wind blows the two embrace and kiss.
Behold the poor, cruel-fated things
who could not kiss in life and kiss now in death.
Translated by Michael Eleftheriou
Ο Γιάννος και η Βαγγελιώ σ’ ένα σχολειό πηγαίναν,
σ’ ένα σχολειό πηγαίναν,
μάθαιν’ ο Γιάννος γράμματα κι η Βαγγελιώ τραγούδια,
κι η Βαγγελιώ τραγούδια.
Ο Γιάννος την αγάπησε, γυναίκα να την πάρει.
– Μάνα μου, θέλω να σου πω, θέλω να σου μιλήσω.
Τη Βαγγελιώ αγάπησα, γυναίκα να την πάρω·
κι αν δε την πάρω με καλό, θα παντρευτώ το Χάρο.
– Φωτιά να φάει τη γλώσσα σου κι αστρίτης το κορμί σου,
που βρήκες και αγάπησες την πρώτη ξαδερφή σου.
[Κάλλιο να πάρω σάβανο και να σε σαβανώσω
παρά να πάρω στέφανα και να σε στεφανώσω.
Τη Βαγγελιώ παντρεύουνε κι ο Γιάννος αποθαίνει,
συμπεθεριό και λείψανο στο δρόμο απαντηθήκαν.
Κανένας δεν αρώτησε, κανένας δε ρωτάει,
η Βαγγελιώ αρώτησε, η Βαγγελιώ ρωτάει.
– Τίνος είναι το λείψανο τ’ ομορφοστολισμένο;
– Της ερημιάς, της σκοτεινιάς, του έρημου του Γιάννου.
Η Βαγγελιώ απέθανε, τα δυο μαζί τα θάψαν.
Στο ένα κιβούρ’ φυτρών’ μηλιά, στο άλλο κυπαρίσσι·
φυσάει αέρας και βοριάς και σκύφτουν και φιλιούνται.
Για ιδές τα, τα βαριόμοιρα, για ιδές τα, τα καημένα·
σαν δεν φιλιόνταν ζωντανά, φιλιούνται αποθαμένα.]
Many fables deal with young, ill-fated love – a subject often linked to arbitrariness and violence within the family. Since the song form likely directs listeners’ thoughts toward social conditions and human nature through its constantly shifting treatment of good and evil, long fables encourage critical engagement on multiple levels with the social mores they highlight. The cruel tales they relate, reiterating like hymns a society’s strict unwritten laws, were certainly intended as examples. Yet every act of violence –even as punishment– is condemned as illogical and groundless, with the singer identifying with the victim.
The song As Long as the Shore falls into this same category. In both, an unjust death is followed by suicide. In both cases, the mother is ultimately to blame for the death, as the upholder of an inflexible moral code and, as we now know, the victim of various psychological syndromes. The young people are buried side by side, and the trees growing above their adjacent tombs sway in the wind, allowing the star-crossed lovers to tenderly embrace in death.
Miranda Terzopoulou (2008)
Based on a field recording by Lambros Goumenos, singer of the song and a teacher from Kerasovo, Preveza, who in the 1980s recorded songs from his native area and shared them with Domna Samiou for inclusion in her archive.
Singers
Informant (source of the song)
