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Necrolatric Dance of Spring
Τώρα είν’ ο Μάης κι η άνοιξη
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Lyrics
It is May month, the spring is here and soon it will be summer,
but now the deer are pleasuring and finding spring content.
A creature with a dainty step, a doe of timid nature,
which does not graze or seek content in company with the others,
instead frequents the shady spots and sleeps in distant places,
and where she finds a limpid pool, she muddies it and laps it.
The sun begins to question her, the sun asks her a question:
– Now, creature with the dainty step, why, doe of timid nature,
do you not graze or seek content in company with the others?
[–Good sun, because you question me, I’ll give you a plain answer:]
For twelve years I did not conceive, I was each year left barren,
but in my thirteenth year I bore at last a baby fawn.
And then one day a hunter came, his sport, alas, deer-stalking,
he found the fawn, it grazed alone, he fired his gun and killed it.
Translated by John Leatham
Original Lyrics
Τώρα είν’ ο Μάης κι η άνοιξη
Η λαφίνα
Τώρα, μαρή, τώρα, τώρα είν’ ο Μάης κι η άνοιξη
τώρα είν’ ο Μάης κι η άνοιξη, τώρα είν’ το καλοκαίρι
τώρα είν’ το καλοκαίρι
τώρα τα ’λάφια χαίρονται, τώρα δροσολογιούνται.
Και μια ’λαφίτσα ταπεινή, ταπεινοκαμαριάρα
δε βόσκει, δε δροσίζεται, δεν πάει κοντά με τ’ άλλα,
όλο τ’ απόσκια περπατεί και τα ζερβά1 κοιμάται
κι όπ’ εύρει γάργαρο νερό, θολώνει και το πίνει.
Κι ο ήλιος την ερώτησε κι ο ήλιος τη ρωτάει:
–Γιατί ’λαφίτσα ταπεινή, ταπεινοκαμαριάρα
δε βόσκεις, δε δροσίζεσαι, δεν πας κοντά με τ’ άλλα;
[–Ήλιε μου σαν με ρώτησες θε να σ’ ομολογήσω.]
Δώδεκα χρόνους έκανα στείρα χωρίς ελάφι
κι από τους δώδεκα και μπρος, απόχτησα ελάφι.
Και ’κεί που βγήκ’ ο κυνηγός να ’λαφοκυνηγήσει
το βρίσκει βόσκει μοναχό, ρίχνει και το σκοτώνει.
1ζερβά: απόμερα
Information
- Region: Central Greece
- Area: Fthiotida, Amphicleia
- Categories: Spring Song, Lament
- Rhythm: 7 beats
- Dance style: Kalamatianos
- Duration: 05:39
Collaborators
- Choir: Group from the Ethnological Dancing Association of Amfiklia 'Dadiotiki Estia'
- Clarinet: Panagiotis Plastiras
- Lute: Kostas Philippidis
- Daouli (davul): Yiorgos Gevgelis
Albums
Recording information
Studio recording, 1997.
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