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Η αγάπη μου παντρεύεται
My love is to wed and marry my rival,
but it’s not that that pains me so,
it pains me that she’s asked me to be their best man.
Father, if you are a Christian and know anything of love take
these marriage-wreathes from them,
crown the bride and make a groom of me.
Translated by Michael Eleftheriou
Η αγάπη μου παντρέ- λέει παντρεύεται και παίρνει τον εχθρό μου
δεν τό ’χω πως παντρεύεται
άιντε δεν τό ’χω πως παντρεύεται και παίρνει τον εχθρό μου
μόν’ τό ’χω πως με κάλεσε τα στέφανα ν’ αλλάξω.
Παπά μ’ αν είσαι χριστιανός και ξέρεις απ’ αγάπη,
πάρε παπά μ’ τα στέφανα και βάλτα στην κουμπάρα
να γίνει ο σύντεκνος γαμπρός.
Wedding song which Samiou recorded in 1978. It was usually sung as the wedding party led the bride away from her parental home.
Lamenting the marriage of a beloved to another person, who thus becomes a rival, is a common theme in Greek folk songs – which is only to be expected given that marriages were arranged by parents on the basis of the family’s finances and that their offspring were not even consulted. Fear of the irreversibility of marriage might lead the lover-left-adrift to employ supernatural means (magic, curses, blessings) to try and win back, at the twelfth hour, the loved one they set to lose forever.
Santoúri – dulcimer in English. Simply put, the dulcimer is a citer whose strings are manually struck with mallets. The piano has probably evolved from the dulcimer. The instrument has a Western Asian origin and the original types remain in. for example, the Iranian tradition (santur). Variants of the instrument are played in folk music traditions in different parts of Europe, including in Greece (santoúri), Hungary and Romania (cimbalom, tsambal), Switzerland (hackbrett) and England (dulcimer).
Miranda Terzopoulou (2018)
Studio recording, 1978.
