Just Like Easter Sunday

Σαν τη Mεγάλην Πασχαλιά

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Lyrics

How wonderful if every day were just like Easter Sunday,
when girls put on their finery and dress as gentlefolk do.

Come on, let’s have a dance or two to signal ‘Christ is Risen!’,
for Christ our Lord died on the Cross, was dead and rose again.

I heard the cries of ‘Christ is Risen!’ and wept in bitter sorrow,
because my brothers were abroad and spent their Easter elsewhere.

But come, let’s have a dance or two, and do not spare your footwear,
for shortly Easter will be past and you will surely miss it.

Translated by John Leatham

Original Lyrics

Σαν τη Mεγάλην Πασχαλιά

Σαν τη μεγάλην Πασχαλιά, να ’ταν οι μέρες ού-
να ’ταν οι- να ’τανε οι μέρες ούλες
π’ αλλάσσουσιν οι κοπελιές, σαν τις αρκοντοπού-
σαν τις α- σαν τις αρκοντοπούλες.

Ελάτε να χορέψουμε για το Χριστός Ανέστη,
ο Κύριός μας ο Χριστός νεκρός ήτον κι ανέστη.

Χριστός Ανέστη έκουσα κι έκλαψα λυπημένα,
γιατ’ έκαμαν τ’ αδέρφια μου Ανάσταση στα ξένα.

Ελάτε να χορέψομε, κοντούρες1 μη λυπάστε
γιατί θα φύγει η Πασχαλιά και θα την πεθυμάτε.


1κοντούρες: παπούτσια (είδος υποδημάτων, συχνά τα πασουμάκια)

Region: Dodecanese
Type: Couplets
Rhythm: 2 beats
Dance: Sousta
Duration: 02:04

Recording information

Studio recording, 1997.

Domna Samiou heard this sung by Chryssopi Koutoupe-Amira, a very elderly woman from Kastellorizo, in 1975.


From the book “An Island in Time – Castellorizo in Photographs 1890-1948”. Nicholas G. Pappas, Nicholas G. Bogiatzis. Halstead Press, Sidney, 2016. Photo SOPHIA HASKAS
From the book “An Island in Time – Castellorizo in Photographs 1890-1948”. Nicholas G. Pappas, Nicholas G. Bogiatzis. Halstead Press, Sidney, 2016. Photo GROUS

Credits

Socrates Sinopoulos

Constantinopolitan lute

Konstantia Kapetanopoulou

Santur

Chryssopi Koutoupe-Amira

Informant (source of the song)

Discography

See also