Καλλιτεχνικός Σύλλογος Δημοτικής Μουσικής Δόμνα Σαμίου

They took the City, they took Salonika
and they took Haghia Sophia along with it.
And they took Haghia Sophia, the Great Monastery
with four hundred semantra, with sixty two bells
and a priest for every bell,
and a deacon for every priest.
And there’s Our Lady the Virgin
going and standing at the door
telling the carpenters, telling the craftsmen:
‘Don’t set to work, carpenters, don’t toil for nought,
for there will be no church here, no Great Monastery;
it will be a Turkish mosque for the thieves to pray in,
for Ali Pasha to worship with his slaves in chains’.

Translated by Michael Eleftheriou

Photo: Mural (1573) from Moldovitsa Monastery depicting the Fall of Constantinople. © The PANORAMA Cultural Association collection.