Τζιβαέρι ⬥ Now a foreign land watches him grow -my precious one my life's sweet-smelling blossom -silently and humbly. God, I was the one who sent him there -my precious one 't was my own will- humbly I'm stepping on my land. Damn you foreign lands, your winds lured him [...]
Γαϊτανάκι μου πλεγμένο ⬥ I had a ribbon at the weaver’s and felt at the tailor’s, and a loved one in a foreign land, and him I’m waiting for, oh, and him I’m waiting for. Oh, ribbon spun and wound around the spinning wheel. The water is from Rhodes and [...]
Συρματικό ⬥ Don’t have me settle far from home, good fortune, I beseech you, but if perchance that’s what you do, don’t visit me with illness, for illness puts a man to bed and props him up with pillows. It needs a mother at his side, a father at his [...]
Τρυγόνα ⬥ There in the sky that you fly, my lady turtle-dove, when from these hights you're looking down, did you by chance see my lover, did you see the man I love, did you see my dashing man, my lady turtle-dove? -Oh yes, indeed, Ι saw him, Ι saw [...]
Τ’ ορφανέσας το νυφέπαρμαν & Ξένε μ’, ξενιτεμένε ⬥ They stay with the bride for two days, for three, Her dress they give her and her veil, but no wedding crown. Beloved stranger so far away, I know you tread foreign soil in lands unknown. I married, I married into [...]
Κλαιν οι πέρδικες στα πλάγια ⬥ Studio recording, 1984. A capella polyphonic song belonging to the reper tory of emigration songs. The fiancee who has stayed behind in her village sings to her beloved who has gone away to seek his fortune. Her parents want to marry her to a [...]
The ship is my house, the sea my courtyard and the waves of the north wind, are my comfort. A little stranger is dying at the ships prow, he hasnt got a mother to weep for him, a father to grieve, nor brother nor sister nor any friend or relative. [...]
Του ναύτη η μάνα ⬥ The wretched mother kneaded dough: her sailor son required rusks. She kneaded dough, the wretched one, and wept and chanted dirges. My mother to the oven spoke, gave orders to the oven: - O oven, bake this loaf right well and brown the crust all [...]
Τρυγόνα ⬥ High up upon your way, moré turtledove, down low as you pass by, sweet beautiful turtledove, might you have caught sight of my beloved, moré turtledove, by sweetheart, my dearest man? – Last night we saw him or the night before laid out upon the plane. Black birds were eating him, white [...]
Σαν πας πουλί μ’ στην ξενιτιά ⬥ When you go off abroad, my love, go off to foreign places, just see you don't remain six months, and don't you linger years there. Go, gallivant around the world and with the folks that's in it, and if you find like me, [...]
Σαν πας στα ξένα ⬥ When you go off to foreign lands, my love, don’t stay a year there, because it’s more than I can bear, the pain of separation. When you go off take me with you, Take me along for company. I cannot stand a day alone, how [...]
Άσπρα μου περιστέρια ⬥ White doves o’ mine, white ring-doves, black-hued birds o’ mine, you fly so high above us, traversing the sky. Come down, alight awhile here, in our courtyards here, so I may write upon your wings, on your little wings, to tell the girl I love so [...]
Ο Γιωργαλάκης ⬥ In yonder machalá, amán, o Yorgalaki, yonder, there’s running water running there – they call it silver water. If any mother drinks of it she’ll not give birth to children. – You drank it, mother, didn’t you, so you’ld not give birth to me? But having given birth [...]
Διώχνεις με μάνα, διώχνεις με ⬥ You drive me, mother, out from home, in truth though I’ll be going. I’ll migrate with the little birds and with the long-winged swallows. In time the birds will all return, but I’ll be ever absent. Good mother, you will go to church, to [...]
Μάνα πολλά μαλώνεις με ⬥ You scold me, mother, overmuch, I want to go abroad now, to go, good mother, overseas to go to foreign places. You’ ll not see me for months, for years you will not run across me. Good mother, feasts will fall as wont, and holidays [...]
Γιάννη μου το μαντίλι σου ⬥ Your kerchief, Yanni, dearest love, why is it soiled and dirty? Come, Yanni, come, Yannaki dear, come now my handsome fellow. T’was soiled while I was far from home, in distant lonely places. O mother dear, they stole my heart, they stole my heart [...]
