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Down, moré, down on the Barbary plane,
the fish are getting married
down on the Barbary plane.
The ants, moré, the ants are celebrating,
the ants are celebrating,
for the best man –me– they are a-waiting.
But to spite them, I did not show,
there wasn’t a shirt to wear upon the whole plateau.
Button up the one, button up the other,
button up the baggy pants bought by your brother.
When I went out and looked about me
a hare was playing the lyre,
a fox the toumberleki.
Translated by Michael Eleftheriou
Κάτου στ’ς Μπαρμπαριάς τουν κάμπου
Κάτου στ’ς Μπα- μωρ’ κάτου στ’ς Μπα-
κάτου στ’ς Μπαρμπαριάς τουν κάμπου,
κάτου στ’ς Μπαρμπαριάς τουν κάμπου
τα ψαρούδια κάνουν γάμο.
Τα μυρμήγκια πανηγύρι,
κάλεσαν κι μένα νούνο.1
Κάκιωσα κι γω δεν πήγα,
π’κάμ’σο δεν είχα να βάλου.
Δένου τό ’να, δένου τ’ άλλου,
δένου του μπαμπά τ’ σαλβάρα.
Άντα2 βγένου κι αγναντεύου
ι λαγός λαλάει τη λύρα
κι αλεπού του τιμπερλέκι.
1νούνος: κουμπάρος
2άντα: όταν
‘Barbary’ is a vague folk term for the coastal regions of North Africa which probably denoted the home of the Berbers, the area’s indigenous, non-Arab population. Associated in the popular imagination with corsairs and slave markets, for ordinary folk it was transformed into a land of myth with connotations of the unfamiliar and the dangerous, the exotic and the salacious. Many other place-names both real and well-known are used in the same way, including Constantinople (in song Three beardless gents), Venice (in songs Three beardless gents and Sweet slender Panagiota), and the West (in song So many lies). Miranda Terzoupoulou (2007)
Studio recording, 2005.
Domna Samiou taped the song in Soufli, Evros, sung by a group of women, in 1973.
