• Increase font size
  • Decrease font size
  • Ελληνικά
  • English

Καλλιτεχνικός Σύλλογος Δημοτικής Μουσικής Δόμνα Σαμίου

Menu
  • Domna Samiou
    • Domna Samiou
    • Contents
      • Domna Samiou
      • Biography
      • A Tale of a Life
      • Others on Domna
    • richmenu_01
      A tale of a life
      Homeless During the Civil War
      richmenu
      richmenu_02
      A tale of a life
      Next to Her Mentor Simon Karas
      richmenu_03
      Socrates Sinopoulos
      A Teacher-Student Relationship
  • Her Work
    • Her Work
    • Contents
      • Her Work
      • Discography
      • List of Songs
      • Concerts
      • "Musical Travelogue"
      • Press Clippings and Interviews
      • Collaborators
      • Domna Samiou Archives
      • Selections
    • richmenu_kalanta
      Musical Selections
      Christmas, New Year & Epiphany Carols
      richmenu
      richmenu_ton_akriton--3
      New release
      Epic Songs of Warriors and Heroes
      richmenu
      richmenu_nikos_papavramidis
      Collaborators
      Nikos Papavramidis
      pa623_main_nikos_stefanidis--2
      Collaborators
      Nikos Stefanidis (1890-1983)
      richmenu
  • The Association
    • The Association
    • Contents
      • The Association
      • About Us
      • Activities
      • The Association's Releases
      • Events
      • Sponsors and Donors
      • Web Links
    • association_richmenu_en_v3
      Activities
      Domna Samiou Archives
      richmenu
      association_richmenu_en_v3
      The Association
      The Board and the Members
      richmenu
  • The Choir
    • The Choir
    • The Lessons
    • The Teachers
    • Contact the Choir
  • Translator's Notes
    • Translator's Notes
    • Musical Instruments
    • Pronunciation Notes
  • Contact
Sign in Show/Hide Search Form

You are at: Home page Her Work List of Songs I gave up all I had & What’s wrong, Theonitsa?

covergr
Listen to Spotify Listen to YouTube Music Listen toiTunes Listen toAmazon
I gave up all I had & What’s wrong, Theonitsa?
covergr
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google
  • Send with e-mail

Όλα μου τα παράτησα & Τι έχεις Θεονίτσα

Listen

Lyrics

I gave up all I had, all the joys life gave me, 
And now walk hand in hand with my humility.
It’s you that torments me, but what can I say?
I love you so much, and that’s how I pay.
I sigh and hurt and weep and mourn;
I see birds on the wing, but why aren’t mine airborne?
In Aghios Konstantinos, such a pretty sight
Your love will give me: the gift of flight.
Count your stars at night, and if a pair should vanish
Ask me and I’ll tell you which thief to banish.
You’re a sun, a moon glowing bright;
You dazzled me so, I’ve lost my sight.


What’s wrong, Theonitsa? You weep the day through
But won’t you tell your Nan what it is that ails you?
What can I say, Gran, what tale can I tell?
You know nothing of love’s hidden sorrow, its spell.

Translated by Michael Eleftheriou

Original Lyrics

Όλα μου τα παράτησα & Τι έχεις Θεωνίτσα

Όλα μου τα παράτησα και την μερακλοσύνη
και περπατώ σιγά σιγά με την ταπεινοσύνη.

Εσύ με βασανίζεις, μα τι μπορώ να πω,
όλα τα υποφέρω, γιατί σε αγαπώ.

Αναστενάζω και πονώ και κλαίω και λυπούμαι,
του κόσμου τα πουλιά θωρώ και το δικό μου πού ’ναι.

Στον Άγιο Κωσταντίνο νερό τρεχάμενο,
η αγάπη σου με κάνει πουλί πετάμενο.

Μέτρησε, νύχτα, τ’ άστρα σου κι αν λείπει ένα ζευγάρι,
ρώτησε μένα να σου πω ποια κλέφτρα σ’ τό ’χει πάρει.

Εσύ ’σαι ένας ήλιος, φεγγάρι λαμπερό,
που θάμπωσες το φως μου και δεν μπορώ να δω.


Τι έχεις, Θεωνίτσα, νύχτα και μέρα κλαις
και μένα της νενές1 σου γιατί δε μου το λες;

Τι να σου πω, νενέ μου, τι να σου διηγηθώ;
Δεν ξέρεις απ’ αγάπη κι από κρυφό καημό.

1η νενέ είναι η γιαγιά (τουρκ. nene)

Information

  • Region: Propontis
  • Type: Couplets
  • Categories: Love Song
  • Rhythm: 4 beats
  • Dance style: Syrtos
  • Duration: 07:48

Collaborators

  • Singer: Domna Samiou
  • Clarinet: Thodoris Georgopoulos
  • Violin: Nikos Oikonomidis
  • Kanun: Panos Dimitrakopoulos
  • Bowed tambouras: Evgenios Voulgaris
  • Constantinopolitan lute: Socrates Sinopoulos
  • Lute: Kyriakos Tapakis
  • Goblet drum: Vangelis Karipis
  • Bendir (frame drum): Andreas Pappas

Albums

  • My Old Torments

Notes

Two songs from Asia Minor sung to the rhythm of the syrtos dance. The first melody was widespread around the Sea of Marmara, where it was sung with minor musical variations on the Kyzikos peninsula, the Marmara islands, Moudania and its environs, the coastal villages of Nicomedia, the Thracian coast of Silyvria and Raidestos and elsewhere, even travelling as far afield as the Aegean islands (Ξύπνα, διαμάντικαιρουμπλί [Wake up, diamond and ruby?, Xypna, diamanti kai roubli], for example, from the Dodecanese). The fifteen-syllable couplets with their thirteen-syllable tsakismata are romantic in nature, conveying modestly, comprehensively and with poetic perfection the sorrow of a love lost or unfulfilled. Other versions feature couplets which exhort the listeners to dance or praise good dancers (Σηκώστε να χορέψουμε, να φύγουνε τα ντέρτια, Get up to dance and banish your sorrows, Sikoste na chorepsoume, na fygoune ta dertia, for instance). Many, like the three couplets here, are very fine as poetry.

And Theonitsa’s song was first sung around the Sea of Marmara, with its dozens of coastal hamlets inhabited by Thracians and Greeks from the Asia Minor seaboard. However, we encounter it with several variations in the words and of the girl's name (Theonitsa, Theanitsa, Theofanitsa, Dionitsa etc.) in various parts of the Aegean and as far afield as Cyprus. Most likely, the song was born out of a real and tragic event. A maid is in love with someone she isn’t allowed to love, either because they are related or because her family does not want the match; when she reveals her passion to them, they kill her. In other versions, the girl falls to her death, because her family does not consent to the marriage. Wherever it took place, the event shocked the small community and became a song spread far and wide, due to its shocking and dramatic content. 

In his monumental 260 Demotic Greek Melodies (Athens, 1905) Georgios Pachtikos mentions an almost complete variation from the Greek village of Kontzes near Nicomedia (pp. 153–155).

Theodor Kondaras (2022)

Recording information

Live recording from the concert Songs of Asia Minor with Domna Samiou at the Megaron, the Athens Concert Hall, on 8/3/2005.

Based on Simon Karas' recording which belongs to the Association for the Dissemination of Greek National Music.

Member Comments

0 Comments

Post a comment


up to 2000
Login to post a comment

See also

d33_cover_badge--2
Song
Early last summer
Early last summer I set my sights on a little bird But chase as I would, lust as I might, She’d always take flight. She s...
d27_badge
Song
A Prince Is to Be Wed
Evil In-Laws A prince is to be wed to a dark-eyed bride whose folk sought refuge here. His bride-to-be’s from uprooted stock, little re...
d05_badge
Song
Arabas (A Horse-Cart Is Passing By)
A horse-cart's passing by, raising clouds of dust, pull up your little dress 'cause it will gather dust. A horse-cart's pas...
d14_badge
Song
Ataris
I vowed to the Holy Virgin not to sing again. Ataris! But for your sake I will break the vow. Four! Once again four bla...
d14_badge
Song
Ballos from Alatsata
Start, sweet tongue of mine, and remember, my lips, And you poor heart, tell what you know. Of songs and commendations I ...
d27_badge
Song
Dawn Glowed in the East
The sun rose in the East and day broke in the West, the young man led his black mount to water. All along the way, he calle...
d14_badge
Song
Dimitroula
You dance, my spoilt one, but I don't know who are you, from your stature you seem, scampish perivolaria, to be of noble bi...
d20_badge
Song
For a Whole Seven Weeks...
For a whole seven weeks, my love, I did not speak to you; because it was the time of Lent, I feared I’d make you sin. I can...
d14_badge
Song
Karsilamas dance from Marmara
May this Bállos last, last until morning that the girls may dance with their mates! Ah, my barber boy, come, embrace my ne...
d11_badge
Song
My Heartless Love
Smyrna's Bálos My heartless love, do you not feel for me as you don your finery and I lose myself for love of thee? Come kiss me quick ...
d14_badge
Song
Roumbalia - Carnation
Who has seen a love-sick youth and a thief of love? Roumbalia,1 carnation, birds circle around you. He wakes up with sighs...
d20_badge
Song
The May Month
The May month with its wealth of flowers and April with its dews, I’ve got you on my mind again and didn’t sleep last night....
d14_badge
Song
Yatzilariani
I brought you a Good Evening, give me a Good Night I had no business here, I came only for you. Come out that I may see yo...
d14_badge
Song
Yioryitsa
I intended to love you, my Yioryítsa, and nobody to know of it. Now our own people learn of it, my Yioryítsa, strangers to...
  • Home page
  • Disclaimer
  • Contact
  • Sitemap
Follow us
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
Subscribe to Newsletter
To Top
© 2010-2014 Domna Samiou Greek Folk Music Association
Stavros Niarchos Foundation
Powered by TOOLIP Web Content Management Designed & developed by EWORX S.A.