You are at: Home page Her Work List of Songs Now Hear Me,…
Easter Dance Song
Άκουσ’ ισύ προυτουσυρτή
Listen
Lyrics
Now hear me, you who leads the dance and you who twists and tangles
direct the dance along a course resembling reeds a-swaying.
I’ll spot the girls both tall and slim, and her whom I’m in love with,
and him who has her by the hand, and who is her intended.
I care not if a local lad delights to hold her closely,
it’s only until Sunday next, until our own betrothal.
Translated by John Leatham
Original Lyrics
Άκουσ’ ισύ προυτουσυρτή
ν-Ακούσ’ ισύ- ν-ακούσ’ ισύ- ν’ακούσ’ ισύ προυτουσυρτή
ν-ακούσ’ ισύ προυτουσυρτή κ’ ισύ προυτουκαγκελευτή.
Κ’ ισύ προυτουκαγκελευτή για βεργουλύγα του χουρό
για βεργουλύγα του χουρό, για βεργουκαγκελέψε τουν,
να διω ψηλές, να διω λιγνές, να διω την κόρη π’ αγαπώ
του ποιος κρατεί του χέρι της, του ποιος την αρραβώνα της.
Ένας μικρός της γείτονας, ας του κρατεί κι ας χαίριτι
[ν-ως την απάνω Κυριακή, κι ως ν’ αρραβωνιάσουμι.]
Information
- Region: Macedonia
- Area: Chalkidiki, Ierissos
- Categories: Easter Song, Ritual Song
- Rhythm: 4 beats
- Dance style: Kangeleftos
- Duration: 03:32
Collaborators
- Choir: Domna Samiou Greek Folk Music Association Choir
- Daouli (davul): Yiorgos Gevgelis
Albums
Notes
A local Easter dance. After morning service on Easter Tuesday, the people of Ierissos arrive in a procession led by banners and the village priests, at Zographiko, site of ‘The Dark Youths Threshing-floor’. There, after a communal feast, the unaccompanied dance begins. It opens with the song ‘On the Dark Youth’s Threshing-floor’ and continues with other melodies sharing the same rhythmical form and consequently an identical dance form. At the end of the event comes the kangeleftόs in which every member of the community joins in, including the priests and the priests’ wives. The single circle of dancers, the men leading the women, performs a very simple step. Arm-in-arm, except for the first two whose hands are linked by a kerchief, the participants move over the ground as the song directs them. The verses instruct the two foremost dancers to lead the dance in a serpentine and swaying movement. And so the human chain follows a winding pattern and eventually passes under the arch formed by the two dancers who are in the lead.
The act of passing under the arch is explained by reference to hazy historical events preserved in the folk tradition of the villagers. In 1854 Ierissos joined in the uprising of the Chalkidiki against the Sublime Porte. In reprisal for its revolt, the Turks destroyed the village and its inhabitants sought shelter on the Athos peninsula. According to the legend, this is the only instance of women being permitted entry to Mount Athos. A few months later, the Turks allowed the villagers to return to their homes, but only after obliging them first to pass, as a sign of submission, beneath the arch made by Muslim soldiers with their swords above the threshing-floors outside the village. One youth who could not bear the humiliation refused to submit and was slaughtered in front of his beloved one.
Other sources place the event on the Kassandra peninsular of the Chalkidiki on Easter Sunday of 1821. That day, the Turks permitted the Christians to return to their villages. However, this version of the event relates that the number of young men slaughtered was much greater. Be that as it may, both legends allow that the serpentine dance should be performed on the site of ‘The Dark Youth’s Threshingfloor’ on the Tuesday of Easter Week in commemoration of the passage of Greeks beneath Turkish swords, whence the arch, so that the tragic death of youths shall never be forgotten. Zoe Margari (1998)
Recording information
Studio recording, 1997.
Based on a Radio Thessaloniki recording made in 1964.
Multimedia
Images




The Dark Youth’s Threshing-floor
Kangeleftós, a local Easter dance. Ierissos, Chalkidiki 1961
Photo Yannis Marinos, Honorary President of Cultural Association of Ierissos, Chalkidiki, ‘Kleigenes’.
The Dark Youth’s Threshing-floor
Kangeleftós, a local Easter dance. Ierissos, Chalkidiki 1969
Photo Yannis Marinos, Honorary President of Cultural Association of Ierissos, Chalkidiki, ‘Kleigenes’.
The Dark Youth’s Threshing-floor
Kangeleftós, a local Easter dance. Ierissos, Chalkidiki 1963
Photo Yannis Marinos, Honorary President of Cultural Association of Ierissos, Chalkidiki, ‘Kleigenes’.
The Dark Youth’s Threshing-floor
Kangeleftós, a local Easter dance. Ierissos, Chalkidiki 1979
Photo Yannis Marinos, Honorary President of Cultural Association of Ierissos, Chalkidiki, ‘Kleigenes’.
Member Comments
Post a comment
See also


Song
Why, It Was Easter Day

Song
A Great Command

Song
All Attend at Church

Song
D'You Hear the Water-Mills


Song
Forty Five Lemon Trees

Song
I Wish to Climb a Mountain Height

Song
Little White Bird A-Sitting

Song
My Love Has Sent for Me

Song
My Love Is to Wed

Song
The Words Gone Round

Song
Three Beardless Gents
