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Να 'μουν νύχτα στο γιαλό
The song has explicit lyrics, and you can watch the video on YouTube if you're over 18.
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Lyrics
If I could be, if I could be, could be upon the shore at night
to light a lamp, to light a lamp, to light a lamp so I might see.
Good auntie Nikolákena, don’t you go gath’ring vegetables.
Where are they kindling bonfires now for little girls to overleap?
There was a host of folks assembled in the archdeacon’s close;
a marriage service was afoot, a man was being wedded there.
Translated by John Leatham
Original Lyrics
Να 'μουν νύχτα στο γιαλό
Να ’μουν νύ- μωρέ, να ’μουν νύ- να 'μουν νύχτα στο γιαλό,
ν’ ανάψω λύ- μωρέ, ν’ ανάψω λύ- ν’ ανάψω λύχνο για να ιδώ.
Θεια μου Νικολάκαινα,
να μην πας για λάχανα.
Πού τσ’ ανάβουν τσι φωτιές
και πηδάνε οι μικρές;
Στ' αρχιδιάκου την αυλή
μαζευτήκανε πολλοί.
Γάμος εγινότανε,
κάποιος παντρευότανε.
Information
- Region: Central Greece
- Categories: Carnival Song
- Rhythm: 4 beats
- Dance style: Sta tria
- Duration: 02:59
Collaborators
- Singer: Domna Samiou
- Choir: Domna Samiou Greek Folk Music Association Choir
- Clarinet: Nikos Philippidis
- Violin: Yiorgos Marinakis
- Constantinopolitan lute: Socrates Sinopoulos
- Lute: Kostas Philippidis
- Goblet drum: Andreas Pappas
Albums
Notes
The allusions and word-plays in this song cannot be rendered into English. The incoherence and lack of meaning here are not fortuitous. The words are broken down into sounds and linked to one another not by virtue of their significance but through a relationship based solely on the weight of their acoustic value. The song functions almost like an incantation, in other words, like a magic spell, unclear and obscure, which is spoken to serve a specific purpose –in this case, to promote fertility– and furthermore to create the necessary sexual atmosphere simply through the utterance of sex-related words. Miranda Terzopoulou (1994)
Recording information
Live recording from the concert Carnival Songs with Domna Samiou held at the Thessaloniki Concert Hall, on March 4, 2003.