Listen

We’ve told so many lies, a truth now let us tell,
we loaded forty pumpkins on a mouse’s tail.

The pumpkins full of water,
and the water full of frogs,
when the frogs croaked,
the mouse kicked up his clogs.

He shed his load, ran off, and was never seen again,
his mother burrowed in the hold
and started to complain:

– Where’ve you been, Zafiris child,
where’ve you been?
– Sailing Citywards for armour,
and to the West for clothes all clean.

Translated by Michael Eleftheriou

Είπαμε πολλά ψέματα

Είπαμε πολλά ψέματα, ας πούμε και μια αλήθεια,
φορτώσαμ’ ένα ποντικό σαράντα κολοκύθια.

Τα κολοκύθια είχαν νερό και το νερό βατράχια
και τα βατράχια λάλαγαν κι ο ποντικός εσκιάχτη
και το φορτίο το ’ριξε, πιλάλετος1 κι εχάθη
και μέσ’ στ’ αμπάρια τρύπωσε κι η μάνα του του λέει:

− Πού ’σουν παιδάκι πόντικα, πού ’σουν καλέ Ζαφείρη;
− Πάω στην Πόλη γι’ άρματα και στη Φραγκιά για ρούχα.

1πιλάλετος: τρεχάλα

Information

Collaborators

Albums

Notes

Intimately linked to all of Man’s activities, part of his environment and a subject of his observation, animals are enrolled through a carefully-considered equation in the gallery of grotesques on which popular satirical verse drew its subject-matter. With the actions, thoughts, words, feelings, weaknesses and faults of everyday folk attributed to them, animals wild and domesticated, two- and four-legged, bugs and rodents all feature in the jocular songs of the Greek folk tradition. (See also songs Down on the Barbary plane and Where to, master ant?). Miranda Tezopoulou (2007)

Recording information

Studio recording, 2005.

Domna Samiou taped the song in Athens, sung by Thalia Spanou, who originates from Fournoi, Ikaria, in '80s.

Member Comments

0 Comments

Post a comment


up to 2000
Login to post a comment

See also

d23_badge
Song
I Want to Climb up to the Top
I want to climb up to the top, my friend, up to the top of the roof of Saint George's, of Saint George's roof. I want to pi...
d12_badge
Song
I Want to Climb up to the Top
I want to climb up to the top, my friend, up to the top of the roof of Saint George's, of Saint George's roof. I want to pi...
d26_04_badge
Song
The Evening Star Has Set
The evening star has set, the morning star arisen but back home from school my boy still isn’t. The evening star for compan...
d21_badge
Song
A Trader Made His Way
A trader made his way from Bulgar lands. He led his trains of twelve and fifteen mules and sang and spoke the while he trek...
d12_badge
Song
I See Some Ships Approaching Port
I see some ships approaching port, how beautiful they seem to me, ships that sail across the waters, rending my faint heart...
d26_badge
Song
Ribbon Interwined
I had a ribbon at the weaver’s and felt at the tailor’s, and a loved one in a foreign land, and him I’m waiting for, oh, a...
d20_badge
Song
The Lament of the Virgin (Phourni)
Holy Week Lament ... – Be off with you, you gypsy scum, and may your hearth grow cold, and may you lack a second shirt to clothe your wretch...
dvd2_badge
Song
Three Beardless Gents
Three beardless gents down from the City, five hairs between them, what a pity. Then bré bré bré a fourth sailed in, from ...
d24_badge
Song
What Did I Do to You, My Sun
What did I do to you, my sun, what did I do? What did I do and now you’re set on setting? Tourna, tourna, tourna there’s a...