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Η τράτα μας η κουρελού
Our trata and its tattered old nets,
patched over and over and yet always torn.
Our old boat
needs sails,
our old boat
needs oars.
If mum only knew that I worked on that boat,
she’d send me my clothes and my old breeches, too.
We spread our nets off Karystos one night
and hauled in a load of fish and a squid.
Translated by Michael Eleftheriou
Η τράτα μας η κουρελού η χιλιομπαλωμένη,
όλο τηνε μπαλώναμε κι όλο ήταν ξεσκισμένη.
Η τράτα μας, γκιόσα,
θέλει κουπιά, γκιόσα,
θέλει πανιά, γκιόσα,
γιαλέλι μ’, γιαλέλι μ’, γιαλέλι μ’, γεια χαρά,
γιαλέλι μ’, γιαλέλι μ’, γεια χαρά σας, ρε παιδιά.
Αν το ’ξερε η μάνα μου πως δούλευα στην τράτα
θα μου ’στελνε τα ρούχα μου και την παλιά μου βράκα.
Πήγαμε και καλάραμε στην Κάρυστο ένα βράδυ,
ψάρια πολλά επιάσαμε και ένα καλαμάρι.
An old sea song once used to set the rhythm for tasks performed by groups of men. Trata initially denoted the conical net used by fishermen. Over time, it came to mean the boat that fished with such nets as well as the act of hauling the laden net out of the sea, an exhausting job and one that could be achieved only if they all worked in unison. The Trata was such a song, in which one of the work gang sang words to encourage their efforts and the others repeated a refrain. The melodies were rudimentary in such songs, the rhythm of which matched the task at hand and the words of which, erotic or teasing, sung coarsely by groups of men, would mock and simultaneously motivate the singers.
Over the course of the 20th century, from the time it was first recorded, this particular traditional work song —like many others of its kind— was transformed into a song for amusement and dancing, with a wide range of lyrics, moods and performance styles. At some point along the way, the song acquired its current title.
The first recording—and most likely the closest to the song’s original, anonymous form— took place in the USA, in 1927, by Sotiris Stasinopoulos, and you can listen to it here.
The variation recorded for this album comes from Karystos, in Southern Euboea, where it accompanies a syrtos in a 2/4 rhythm.
Miranda Terzopoulou (2018)
See also Our Fishing-Boat a Battered Hulk (Trikeri, Thessaly), I Sold my Boat (Dodecanese).
Studio recording (1979).
In Domna Samiou’s Archive, there is another version of the song recorded in 1976 in Euboea.
Song Panagiotis Millas, group of men. Panagiotis Millas, violin, Antonis Verouchis, lute. Mylos, Euboea, 1976
TV program “Musical Travelogue with Domna Samiou”
In the video below there is another version of the song from Kymi, Euboea
