Σαν τη Mεγάλην Πασχαλιά

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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

Σαν τη Mεγάλην Πασχαλιά

Σαν τη μεγάλην Πασχαλιά, νά ’ταν οι μέρες ού-
νά ’ταν οι- νά ’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)

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Notes

Only women sing this Easter song and they dance it with the steps of the local sousta. Following the Second Resurrection, on the afternoon of Easter Sunday the women of Kastellorizo open the general feasting by performing this dance on the forecourt of the church. The feast/dance, accompanied by instrumentalists, lasts about one hour. The dance is repeated indoors on the next two evenings. Zoe Margari (1998)

Recording information

Studio recording, 1997.

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

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