Greek Folk Songs From Turkey

18 II CO ! CO GREEK FOLK-SONGS FROM THE TURKISH PROVINCES OF GREECE, 'H AOTAH "EAAA2: ALBANIA, THESSALY, (NOT YET

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18 II CO

!

CO

GREEK FOLK-SONGS FROM

THE TURKISH PROVINCES OF GREECE, 'H

AOTAH "EAAA2:

ALBANIA, THESSALY, (NOT YET WHOLLY FREE,}

AND MACEDONIA:

Xitcnil mtb Jfletmal BY

LUCY

M.

GARNET T,

J.

CLASSIFIED, REVISED,

AND EDITED, WITH AN

T

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION ON THE SURVIVAL OF PAGANISM. BY

JOHN

STUART GLENN

S. IE, M.A., OF THE MIDDLE TEMPLE, BARRISTER-AT-LAW.

LONDON ELLIOT STOCK,

62,

:

PATERNOSTER ROW, 1885.

E.G.

Thug e doibh sgeul air Itigh na Greige, agus mar a bha Nighcan an Righ air a gleidheadh 'san Dun, 's nach robh aon air bith gu AILLIDH, Nighean R\gh na Grtige, fhaotainn ri phbsadh, ach aon a bheireadh a mack i le sar ghaisge? SGEUL CHONUIL GHUILBNICH. *

And

he told them the Tale of the King of Greece, and how his Daughter 'was kept in the Dun, and that no one at all was to get A UTY, Daugliter of the King of Greece, to marry, but one who could bring her out by great (

BE

valour?

CAMPBELL, West Highland

Tales, Vol.

III., p.

258.

THE HELLENES OF

ENSLAVED GREECE NOT YET WHOLLY AND MACEDONIA),

(ALBANIA, THESSALY,

FREE,

THESE

GREEK FOLK-SONGS ARE DEDICATED, WITH THE EARNEST WISH OF

THE TRANSLATOR AND EDITOR, THAT THEIR JOINT IN GIVING SOME BETTER

WORK-

KNOWLEDGE

OF,

AND KEENER SYMPATHY WITH,

A PEOPLE WHOSE

SPIRIT

AND SENTIMENT

ARE STILL CLASSICAL-

MAY GAIN HELP FOR A LAST AND SUCCESSFUL STRUGGLE FOR THE COMPLETION OF

HELLENIC INDEPENDENCE.

GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS; PREFACE. PAGE

REMARKS, POLITICAL AND LINGUISTIC

-

xvii

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. THE SURVIVAL OF PAGANISM. SECTION

I.

II.

THE FACT OF THE SURVIVAL OF PAGANISM PAGAN

SANCTUARIES

SCENES III.

AND

3

FOLK-SONG

-

20

THE

CAUSE PAGANISM

THE

OF

NOTE BY THE TRANSLATOR

SURVIVAL

OF 42

-

65

METRICAL TRANSLATIONS. CLASS SECTION

I.

II.

III.

I.

II.

III.

MYTHOLOGICAL FOLK-SONGS. -

69 94

CHRISTIAN

CHARONIC

CLASS SECTION

I.

IDYLLIC

II.

III.

in

-

133 157

AFFECTIONAL FOLK-SONGS.

EROTIC DOMESTIC HUMOURISTIC

CLASS

-

-

184

199 216 240

HISTORICAL FOLK-SONGS.

PASHALIC SOULIOTE-

-

II.

III.

HELLENIC

-

SECTION

I.

-

APPENDIX. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF GREEK FOLK-LORE

-

-

259

ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. PREFACE. REMARKS, POLITICAL AND LINGUISTIC. PAGE 1.

The

bearing of the Study of Folk-life and Folk-lore on Historical Theory, and the Influence of the latter

2.

on

Political Forces

The importance

for Civilization of the

xvii

Resurrection

and the completion of Hellenic

of the Greeks,

-

-

independence 3.

-

xix

The 'Policy of the European Concert,' and the two chief actual objects of that 'Concert' with

xx

respect to Europe 4.

The suggested New

5.

The

Modern

-

Latin Languages Patois of Southern Albania, and English Patois of Southern Scotland, and the character-

xxiii

The Greek istics

of the

former in relation to

Modern Greek 7.

xxi

and the of the Greek and

to Classical Greek,

causes of the different histories

6.

Greco-Albanian

-

Confederation relation of

Policy of a

The

-

Athenian -

xxvii

'

Tale of the King of Greece,' a legendary reminiscence explained by the facts of Keltic Gaelic

History

-

-

xxix

Analytical Table of Contents.

viii

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

THE SURVIVAL OF PAGANISM. SECTION

I.

THE FACT OF THE SURVIVAL OF PAGANISM. PAGE 1

.

2.

The Plutarchian Legend of the Death of Pan The symbolic meaning given to this Legend, and its

untruth

4

3.

Testimonies to

4.

The

this untruth

by Christian students of 6

Folk-lore essential

and

characteristics

surviving

of

8

Paganism 5.

3

Illustrations in our Folk-songs of the feeling of

One-

ness with Nature, and of direct Personalizing of its

phenomena

-

8

6.

Illustrations of the indirect Personalizing of in the creation of Gods and

7.

Illustrations

N ature 10

Demi-gods

of unconsciousness of sin in Sexual

Love, and of nonbelief in a supernatural state of Rewards and Punishments 8.

Illustrations of the feeling of

9.

What was

10.

13

Family kinship, and

of patriotic devotion to the Fatherland the origin of the of which the Legend symbolic truth is thus disproved ? -

15

16

A suggestive

proximity of localities, and synchronism of dates -

u. The

fact of survival to

be more

fore investigating the cause

SECTION

x 7

fully illustrated be-

-

18

II.

PAGAN SANCTUARIES AND FOLK-SONG SCENES.

The

sites

of the Ancient Sanctuaries, centres of origin

of the

Modern Songs

-

-

-

-

20

Analytical Table of Contents. SUB-SECTION

I.

ix

ALBANIA. PAGE

3.

The Glen of Dodona, and its ruined later Temples The primitive Sanctuary imaginatively restored The Holy Places of Epeiros, and their systematic

4.

The Acherusian

5.

The

1. 2.

relations

of the

New

and the Vergilian

localities

Ilion

24

strath of loannina, the Hellopia of -

SUB-SECTION

Hesiod, and

-

IT.

-

2c

THESSALY.

1.

Roumanian Mezzovo, and the Zygos Pass from

2. 3.

The Mid-air Monasteries as Historical Monuments The Upper and Lower Plains of Thessaly and their

4.

enclosing Hills its on Thessalian and Macedonian sides Olympus

5.

The

Illyria into

-

Thessaly

Seat of two Races of

Men and

III.

Sanctuary of

MACEDONIA.

and the

as seen from Salonica

variety of

its

aspects

-

34

and the Homeric Rhapsodist of its Kallameria Gate

2.

Salonica,

3.

The

4.

The Promontory

original

36

Monasteries

of the

Holy Mountain and

its

-

37

Samothrace, and surviving

relics

of the worship of

the Kd.beiri

The wonder and above

35

Macedonia, the upland Glens west of

the Axius

5.

31

32

SUB-SECTION of Olympus,

27 28

29 -

two Orders of Gods

The range

22

23 Plain,

Hellas of Aristotle

1.

21

39

interest of the survival of

illustrated

-

-

Paganism -

-

41

Analytical Table of Contents.

SECTION

III.

THE CAUSE OF THE SURVIVAL OF PAGANISM. PAGE 1.

The

2.

The problem presented by the Overthrowal,

history of professed Creeds not the history of

42

Religion vival

and Revival of Paganism

3.

The New Theory of the 'Unity of

4.

The

European-Asian Civilization

The

6.

The

-

44

History,'

and of

-

45

Sixth Century B.C. the true division between

Ancient and Modern History 5.

yet Sur-

-

47

explanation given of the origin of Christianity by the facts of the Revolution of the general

Sixth Century B.C. five

49

elements of contemporary sentiment and

thought which Christianity succeeded in combining 7.

8.

-

52

The

general philological and historical proof of the Semitic character of the Christian God-idea

struggle of the Neo-Platonists against Christianity 9.

54

This proved also by the difference between the Christian and the Neo-Platonic Trinity, and

56

And by the history of the influence of Neo-Platonism on Christian Theology

10.

Further

1 1.

The

verifications

-

58

indicated of the suggested

60

cause of Survival provisional utility

of the Semitic God-idea of

Christianity, but return

Aryan Forefathers

NOTE BY THE TRANSLATOR

now

to the

God

of our

62

65

Analytical Table of Contents.

xi

METRICAL TRANSLATIONS. CLASS

I.

MYTHOLOGICAL FOLK-SONGS. SECTION

I.

IDYLLIC. PAGE

The Sunborn and Hantseri The Siren and the Seamen The Shepherd and the Lamia The Stoicheion and the Widow's Son The Stoicheion and Yanni

69 74 75

76 78

Yanni and the Drakos The Witch of the Well The Witch Mother-in-Law

79

80 81

The Bridge of Arta The Enchanted Deer The Sun and the Deer The Black Racer The Shepherd and the Wolf The Swallows' Return The Bird's Complaint The First of May The Soldier and the Cypress Tree The Apple Tree and the Widow's Son The River and the Lover

81

83 85 86 87

88

-

Olympos and Kissavos

89 90 91 -

92 92

-

93

SECTION

II.

CHRISTIAN.

For the Feast of the Christ-Births Saint Basil, or the New Year

The

Feast of the Lights, or Epiphany

Vaia, or

Palm Sunday

-

94 96 -

97

98

Analytical Table of Contents.

xii

PAGE

Ode

to the

Seven Passions

99

For the Great Friday

101

The Resurrection The Miracle of St. George The Vow to St. George Procession for Rain

The

Visit to Paradise

-

104.

-

104

-

107

108

-

and Hell -

SECTION

-

109

-

1 1 1

III.

CHARONIC.

The Moirai Charon and

in

-

his

Mother

Charon's Wedding-Feast for his Son

Charon and the Souls Charon and the Young Wife Charon and the Shepherd The Jilted Lover and Charon Zahos and Charon The Rescue from Charon

The

River of the

112

-

-113,

-

-

-

114 115

-

-116' -

Dead

117

n& 119 120

Dirge for a Father Dirge for a House-Mistress

-

121

Dirge for a Son

-

121

-

123

Dirge for a Daughter Dirge for a Sister

Dirge for a Young Husband The Young Widow The Dead Son to his Mother The Vampire .

Thanase Vaghia

122

-

124 -

124

-

125 126

-

129

Analytical Table of Contents. CLASS

II.

xiii

AFFECTIONAL FOLK-SONGS. SECTION

I.

EROTIC. PAGE

The Fruit of the Apple-Tree The Neglected Opportunity The Wooer The Lover's Dream The Nuns The Despairful One

133 -

134 -

135

136 137

138 -

Elendki, the Nightingale

The Last Request The Lover's Return The Widow's Daughter The Partridge The Discovered Kiss The Rake The Woman-Hunter The Forsaken One The Vlach Shepherdess Unkind The Vlach Shepherdess Kind The Black-Eyed One The Lover

-

138 139 140 140 141

-

142

-

143

-

143

-

144 145 146

-

146

-

147

Fair

-

148

-

149

The Blue-Eyed Beauty The Garden

-

149

Ones and Dark Ones Blue-Eyed and Dark-Eyed Ones

Yannedtopoula

The

150

-

150 -

Little Bird

The Cypress The Broken Pitcher

152 -

152 -

Distichs

The Bulgarian Girl and The Rose-Tree The Green Tree

151

the Partridge

-

153 153

-

-

154 155

Analytical Table of Contents.

xiv

SECTION

II.

DOMESTIC. SUB-SECTION

I.

EARLY MARRIED

LIFE. PAGE

For the Throning of the Bride For the Bride's Departure

For the Young Bridegroom The Wife's Dream The Husband's Departure The Exiled Bird The Absent Husband The Husband's Return SUB-SECTION Lullabies

I.

-

-

157

-

158

-

-

161

-

162

-

163

-

I.

159 159 160

LULLABIES AND NURSERY RHYMES.

II.

IX.

Nursery Rhymes

VIII.

SUB-SECTION

The Parson's Wife The Forsaken Wife The Sale of the Wife Maroiila, the Divorced

The Old Man's Bride The Old Man's Spouse

III.

LATER MARRIED

-

-

-

LIFE. .

.

-

-

-

-

.

.

^g

-

179 180

-

-

Husband -

Slayer

SECTION

^5

-170

-

Yannakos, or the Assassinated

The Child

-

I75

176 177

-

-

-

-

180

_

-

182

-

.

^4

III.

HUMOURISTIC.

The Dance of the Maidens The Feast The Janissary The Tree The Wineseller The Gallants

-

.

-'.

.

. .

-

-

_

l8s

186 l86 l8;

xv

Analytical Table of Contents.

PAGE

The The The The The The The The The

Dream

-

Refusal

-

188 189

Lemon-Tree

-

Hegoumenos and

the Vlach

Maiden

Bulgarian Girl

Wooer's Gift

191

-

191

-

Shepherd's Wife

-

192

193

-

194

Klephts Thief turned

CLASS

igo

-

Husbandman III.

-

196

-

199 200

HISTORICAL FOLK-SONGS. SECTION

I.

PASHALIC.

The Sack of Adrianople The Capture of Constantinople The Child-Tax

-

-

Dropolitissa

Night-School Song

The

The

202 203

-

Slave

-

Metsoi'sos

-

-

Christos Milionis

Syros Satir

202

-

Sea-Fight and the Captive

Serapheim of Phandri

-

-

Bey

The Capture

of Larissa and Tirnavo

Soulieman Pashina

Noutso Kontodemos

-

204 206 207 209 210 212

-

213

-

214 214

-

SECTION

201

-

II.

SOULIOTE.

Koutsonika

!

-

Lambros Tzavelas

-

216

-

217

Analytical Table of Contents.

xvi

PACK

The Capture of Preveza The Monk Samuel

-

228

-

Evthymios Vlachavas Moukhtar's Farewell to Phrosyne

233

The Capture of Gardiki The Klepht Vrykolakas

-

234

-

236

-

of Liakata"

Despo

The

Exile of the Parghiots

-

SECTION

219 220

237

238

III.

HELLENIC. Zito Hellas

240

!

Kostas Boukovalas

-

The Klepht's Farewell to his Mother The Klepht's Wintering The Klephts Awaiting the Spring

-

Haidee

-

241

243

245 246 -

-

247

The Lovelorn Klepht The Death of the Klepht

248

Sabbas the Armatole

-

250

Diakos the Armatole

-

The

Siege of Missolonghi

248

-

-

250

-

252

Nasos Mantalos

-

The

-

Battle of

Kalabdka

Kapitan Basdekis Themistocles Doumouzos

-

253 254 255 257

APPENDIX. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF GREEK FOLK-LORE

-

-

259

ERRATA. P. xxviii. P. 8.

For*\d), readied)

love, that

P. 8, n.

13.

P. 21, n. P. 23.

2

.

For

P. 44, n.

is,

P. 90.

second comma.

For

5v(Txei/"por, read dvaxupspov.

fcXiTj&re,

read

X/ii/

*

/c\jjere.

DEMOSTHENES,

for Tdf iraipag X o^v P. 65.

vet, VOL.

delete

Bulgaresa, read Bulgares.

e

cW

and for

For

After

i.

;

not mere lust

insert (in

T^oi/r/e evexa,

and add to end

Neavwv Wvos) first began to be called Scotland. Having thus defined the philosophical aim, and indicated the policy by which, as I think, effect may best be given to the political aim, of this Collection of Greek Folk-songs, I would now make a few remarks, not indeed on the Translations, of which Miss Garnett will herself say all that is necessary, but on the Language of which than

finally,

to

;

they are renderings.

The Originals are in a patois of which some of the But it is imcharacteristics will presently be noted. as to out that, portant, first, point spoken by an educated contemporary Greek, the Language, of which

this patois

xxiv

Preface: Remarks,

a rustic dialect, differs less, in its grammatical forms, from that of the Homeric Rhapsodists of nearly three is

millenniums ago, than the Language of an educated contemporary Englishman differs from that of Chaucer, There are, it is true, only half a millennium ago. great and important differences between Classical and

Modern Greek, both differences

summarize

which

I

in

xxviii.),

(p.

cares to go into

vocabulary and in syntax-

shall

more

presently

state,

rather

or

and which the student, who detail, will easily find

out for

himself by comparing the Alexandrian Greek of the New Testament with Attic Greek on the one side, and

Romaic Greek on the

other.

But

it

is

now more than

thirty years since Professor Blackie first forcibly pointed out that the Neo-Hellenic of Tricoupis is but such

a Dialect of Greek as the Ionic of Homer, or Doric of Theocritus and that, great as are the changes in ;

English pronunciation since even Chaucer's time, the accent in Greek is still on the very syllables accented by the grammarians of the days of the Ptolemies, mere than two thousand years ago. Not even yet, however, is this fact generally realized, if indeed, known. This is chiefly due, I believe, to the thoroughly false views of European History generally prevalent. And

hence it is by indicating, at least, what will, as I think, be found to be somewhat truer historical views, that the reader will be most readily enabled to understand, and hence realize the fact that, while Italian, for instance, differs

from Latin, as a new Language, or new genus, differs from Classical Greek as but a new

Modern

Dialect, or

The the

new

species.

unity which, as shown in the Introduction

is,

for

time, given to European- Asian History by the substitution of the natural Epoch of the General Revolufirst

Political

and

xxv

Linguistic.

tion of the Sixth Century B.C. for the supernatural Era of the birth of Jesus this unity, like every unity of Evolution, is a unity, not of identity, but of correlative differences.

For

if

the Sixth Century

B.C.

shows a

Human

general similarity in the great movements of Development both in Asia and in Europe, it shows also, as pointed out in the Introduction (p. 49), the origination then of a profound difference between the Civilizations

of Europe and of Asia. And so it is also in the case of European Civilization considered by itself. Immortal as the Decline and Fall must be, the history of Europe is

not truly, as to Gibbon, the history of the Roman Empire. No sooner had a general European Civilization

been constituted Classical

a civilization, not merely, as in the I B.C. A.c), of two European

Period (500

peninsulas, but, as in the succeeding Neo-Aryan Halfmillennium (i A.C. 500 A.C.), a Civilization extending

from Britain to the Bosphorus

no sooner had such a

general European Civilization been constituted than, under the nominal unity of the Roman Empire, there arose two distinctly different Civilizations the Civilizations of Eastern

and Western Europe, the

of the Greek and the Latin tongue

:

Civilizations

Civilizations different

economical and

political, moral and and It is in the interreligious, philosophical literary. action of these two clearly differentiated Civilizations, and not in an appellation which, for nearly a thousand years, was little more than a mere vain and empty name,

in every

regard,

that the true unity is to be found of European Civilization. And the recognition of this differentiation and

may at least prepare us, if not to expect, to the fact of the utmost contrast between the accept of the Greek, and the history of the Latin history interaction

Language.

xx vi

How

Preface: Remarks, was that Greek remained a Living, while Dead Tongue how it was that the one

it

Latin became a

new

lived on in a

a new Language,

Dialect, while the other gave place to will be further clear on consideration

of the following

Western *

facts.

the

(470),

Though,

after the fall of the

Eastern Empire was

was

still

called

'

and language Roman/ that the Instittites of Justinian had already, in the Sixth Century A.C., to be translated into Greek for popular use. During the thousand years between the fall of Rome and the fall of Constantinople (470 1453) Classical Greek continued to be the literary language of

Roman/

so

little

it

in race

a State which, through the very loss of

became

so

much more

its

nationally Greek

provinces,

that,

when

Constantine IX. died gloriously in the breach, defending not only his capital, but Christendom, from Mohammed the Conqueror, he was, though in name a Roman

Emperor,

in

conditions of

fact

a Greek

the

King.

Slavonian,

and

And of

just

the

as

the

Frankish

and conquests had formerly been, so the Ottoman invasions and conquests were now, such as to foster and fan rather than stifle and quench the flame of distinctive Greek life, and so prepared the Greeks to lead the way in those heroic movements of National Resurrection which made illustrious the close of the Eighteenth Century. For whereas, in the time of the Emperors, the polite was very different from the popular dialect as we know from the two poems in that dialect which the monk Theodore invasions

conditions of the

Ptochoprodromos addressed to the Emperor Manuel and no effort was made to approximate them (1143) yet now, in the general enslavement, such an effort was vigorously made by patriotic Greeks, and its success was ;

greatly aided

by the

invention, at this time, of printing.

Political

and

xxvii

Linguistic.

the results of these patriotic exertions to amalgamate the Greeks by assimilating their polite and popular dialects may be mentioned the Church History of Meletius, Bishop of Athens (d. 1714) the Romance

Among

;

of Kornaro entitled Erotocritus (1737) and the translation of the Arabian Nights (1792). This movement was brought to a climax by Adamantines Koraes of Smyrna ;

(b. 1748).

Since the establishment of the Greek Kingeffort, in the reverse

dom, there has been a sustained

direction, towards the reclassicalising of the

Language.

by poets not of the people, and notably by Valaorites (b. 1824), the popular dialects, and especially But

still,

the Epirote patois, have been largely used for poetry. Such are some of the general facts which may enable the reader not only to recognise, but in some degree also, perhaps, to understand, that identity of Modern, with Classical, Greek speech, which not only connects, as with a living bond, the Present with the Classical

Period, but serves also to explain that wonderful identity of Modern with Classical Greek sentiment which he will find in the following Translations.

And now

with

patois of Modern It are renderings.

respect

more

particularly to

that

Greek of which these Translations

is in the Epirote patois that most of the Folk-songs here translated have been composed. For among rustic dialects of Greek, that of Southern

Albania holds much the same place

as,

among

dialects of English, that of Southern Scotland.

rustic

There

however, between the two cases to the Burns, English patois of Southern Scotland classical, this patois was his mother tongue ; while to Valaorites, who made the Greek patois of Southern

is this difference,

:

who made

Albania classical, it was, from the circumstances of his birth and education, rather his nurse's than his mother's

xxviii

Preface

:

Remarks

',

tongue, and hence his acquaintance with to be perfected

life,

by

it

had, in after

By no means,

special effort.

however, on this account, is the Epirote of Valaorites more easy than that of the nameless popular bards who

spontaneously utter in that dialect their

'

native

wood-

On

notes wild.'

the contrary, it is so labouredly rustic as to be more difficult than the genuinely rustic speech

But M. de Queux de

itself.

St. Hilaire, in his Intro-

duction to M. Blancard's Translations of Valaorites'

Pohnes

Patriotiques, goes, perhaps, too far when he says of his author's poetical language that it is as remote from the true popular, as from the new literary lan-

guage langue et

'

Cette langue populaire s'eloigne autant de la

.... que de

litteraire

que

idiomatique

la

Valaorites

langue aussi factice remettre en

voulait

honneur.'

The patois of these Folk-songs may be generally characterized as simply carrying a stage or two further those differences which distinguish from Classical Greek, the

Modern Greek

of educated speakers.

The

latter,

well known, differs from the former in the loss of tenses by the verb the use of the auxiliaries #e\o> and as

is

and perfect, and of va (iva) instead of and the loss of cases by the noun the

"%&> for the future

the infinitive

genitive and dative being confused with the accusative. not only thus, as to grammar, but as to words,

And

Modern

from Classical Greek

differs

in

these various

ways ordinary use of what were formerly words in the use of old words with new poetical meanings in the curtailment of words ; in the lengthen:

the

in

;

;

ing of words, particularly for diminutives ; and in the importation of new words from all the languages with

which the Greeks as a people have been brought into Latin, Slavonian, Italian, Albanian, and Turkish.

contact

Political

Now,

in the patois

and

xxix

Linguistic.

of these Folk-songs

all

these differ-

grammar and as to words between ordinary Modern and Classical Greek are exaggerated, and there

ences as to

some

interesting peculiarities of pronunciaThese consist either in the tion rather than of words.

are besides

the change, not only of vowels, but of conIn certain districts v, and in others /?, is elided;

elision, or in

sonants.

in certain districts, K

is

substituted for

T,

and

in others,

And

particularly remarkable in this respect is the difference between the patois of the storm-secluded old Pelasgian island of Samothrace and the patois of the adjoining mainland of Thrace and Macedonia, where

p for X.

;

In Samothrace, Greeks are mixed with Bulgarians. there is an elision of the harsh p in the words in which while on the mainland a rasping p it usually occurs seems to be preferred to a liquid X, and one hears the natives address each other as aSe/xe, instead of d8eXjs (M TO, goda.

Mcojs, wirijxs

(L\

/AJjwxf,

K. r. X.

(Aravandinos, 440.)

O MAY has is

with

come, the month of May, the month of

May

us,

May, with her

thirty-petalled flowers,

and April with

his roses.

Thou, April, art in roses drest most cherished, 1

Sung by children

at the

;

and May, thou month

doors of houses.

The First of May. Thou

floodest all the

and blossom

And me tell

Go,

91

gladsome world again with bloom

;

thou tvvinest tenderly in the embrace of beauty. the maiden that I love, go, give the maiden

warning,

That

I

am coming with a kiss before the rain or snow falls

Before the

Danube

shall

come down, and draw the

;

rivers

to him.

When it is raining I go forth, and when the shower ceases, And when the still small rain falls down, then springs the sweet carnation.

O If

open us your embroidered has groats

it

And

little

purse,

your purse with pearls

!

in,

give

them us

;

and

but pence, yet

if

give them, if sweet wine within you find, give us that drink it.

we may

THE SOLDIER AND THE CYPRESS TREE. O AEBENTH2. Zagorie. yvpwe,

"fcupi

va

vq

K

(j,tvr . t

x.

r.

X,

(Aravandinos, 414.) THERE was a youth, he was a valiant soldier, Who sought a tower, a town wherein to sojourn

:

The road he found, and found he too the footpath Tower found he none, nor town wherein to sojourn. ;

He '

found a

tree,

Welcome me,

For

I

the tree they call the Cypress

tree

!

welcome me now,

O

:

Cypress

!

have strayed away from field of battle, eyes in sleep would fain be closing.'

And now my

Lo here my boughs, upon them hang thy weapons Lo here my roots,- thy steed to them now tether

'

;

;

Here lay thee down,

rest here,

and slumber

sweetly.'

Greek Folk-Songs.

92

THE APPLE TREE AND THE WIDOWS H MHAHA KAI O

TIO2 TH2 XHPA2.

Zagora. Sais/ffs

ftag

r'

at^/a

.Xa va wops'ivy. x. r. X.

(Aravandinos, 153.)

O

COME and

learn the

wonder

great, the

that happened, Christ did condescend for men, did suffer.

How

And then went down

wonder great

and much

to Jordan's brink,

and

for

them

into Jordan's

waters, With the command to be baptized, baptized the Baptist.

by John

Greek Folk-Songs.

98 '

Come,

come

John,

come and do thou

hither now,

baptize Me, in this awful wonder thou may'st serve attend Me.'

For *

O My

Lord

My

O

!

no, I cannot look, cannot look

Me

and

on

Thy

beauty,

Nor can

gaze upon the Dove that

I

o'er

Thy head

is

hov'ring.

Lord

My

O

!

Thee from above

no, I cannot touch

descended,

For the wide earth and

Thy *

Come,

all

the heavens submit them to

orders.'

O My

John,

come unto Me, and

linger thou

no

longer;

To

this great

mystery we perform thou shalt become the

sponsor.'

Then John

baptized his Lord forthwith, that might be cleansed and purged

The

sin that

Adam

be cancelled

And

to

first

had sinned, and that

it

might

;

confound the Enemy, to

foil

the thrice accursed

Beguiler of mankind, that he in hell

VAIA,

OR

may

dwell for ever,

PALM SUNDA F.

1

BAIA. KaX'

rif&spa cag,

KaAq

KaXZ>$ (ca$) rjupapiv

%f>ov/a

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