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Giannos and Vangelio went to the same school,
Giannos to learn to read and write, Vangelio to sing.
Giannos fell in love and would take her for his wife.
– Mother, I have something, something I must share,
I love Vangelio and would take her for my wife.
And if I cannot have her, I will gladly wed my grave.
– May flames sear your tongue and venom your body
for going and falling for your own first cousin.
Far better I get a winding sheet to wrap you in
than wedding crowns to set upon your head.
Now Vangelio is preparing to wed and Giannos to die,
and wedding party meets pall bearers upon the street.
No one asked, no one dared, except for Vangelio.
– Whose corpse is that, so beautifully bedecked?
– Oh dark and dismal day, ’tis poor Giannos’ corpse!
Vangelio died and the two were buried side by side.
An apple tree grew out of one grave, a cypress from the other,
and when the North wind blows the two embrace and kiss.
Behold the poor, cruel-fated things
who could not kiss in life and kiss now in death.
Translated by Michael Eleftheriou
Ο Γιάννος και η Βαγγελιώ
Ο Γιάννος και η Βαγγελιώ σ’ ένα σχολειό πηγαίναν,
σ’ ένα σχολειό πηγαίναν,
μάθαιν’ ο Γιάννος γράμματα κι η Βαγγελιώ τραγούδια,
κι η Βαγγελιώ τραγούδια.
Ο Γιάννος την αγάπησε, γυναίκα να την πάρει.
– Μάνα μου θέλω να σου πω, θέλω να σου μιλήσω.
Τη Βαγγελιώ αγάπησα, γυναίκα να την πάρω
κι αν δε την πάρω με καλό, θα παντρευτώ το Χάρο.
– Φωτιά να φάει τη γλώσσα σου κι αστρίτης το κορμί σου,
που βρήκες και αγάπησες την πρώτη ξαδερφή σου.
Κάλλιο να πάρω σάβανο και να σε σαβανώσω
παρά να πάρω στέφανα και να σε στεφανώσω.
Τη Βαγγελιώ παντρεύουνε κι ο Γιάννος αποθαίνει,
συμπεθεριό και λείψανο στο δρόμο απαντηθήκαν.
Κανένας δεν αρώτησε, κανένας δε ρωτάει,
η Βαγγελιώ αρώτησε, η Βαγγελιώ ρωτάει.
– Τίνος είναι το λείψανο τ’ ομορφοστολισμένο;
– Της ερημιάς, της σκοτεινιάς, του έρημου του Γιάννου
Η Βαγγελιώ απέθανε, τα δυο μαζί τα θάψαν.
Στο ένα κιβούρ’ φυτρών’ μηλιά, στο άλλο κυπαρίσσι,
φυσάει αέρας και βοριάς και σκύφτουν και φιλιούνται.
Για ιδές τα, τα βαριόμοιρα, για ιδές τα, τα καημένα,
σαν δεν φιλιόνταν ζωντανά, φιλιούνται αποθαμένα.
Many fables deal with young, ill-fated love, a subject which is often linked to arbitrariness and violence within the family. As the song form most likely turns listener’s thoughts to social conditions and human nature through their constantly vacillating treatment of good and evil, long fables encourage a critical engagement on numerous levels with the social mores they highlight. The cruel tales they relate, which reiterate hymn-like a society’s strict unwritten laws, were certainly intended to serve as an example while every act of violence –even by way of punishment– is condemned as illogical and groundless, and the singer identifies with the victim.
The song As long as the shore falls into this same category. In both, an unjust death is followed by suicide. And in both cases, the mother is ultimately to blame for the death as the upholder of an inflexible moral code and, as we now know, the victim of various psychological syndromes. The young people are buried side by side and the trees which grow above their adjacent tombs blow in the wind, allowing the star-crossed lovers tenderly to embrace in death. Miranda Terzopoulou (2008)
Translated by Michael Eleftheriou
Lambros Goumenos, who sings, was a teacher from Kerasovo, Preveza. In the 1980s, he recorded ten songs from his native area and gave them to Domna Samiou for inclusion in her archive.
