Listen
Pirpiritsa walking along imploring God,
– God, rain down a rain, a gentle rain
for the wheat and for the barley
and for all God’s seeds and crops.
Ponds, ponds full with water
furrows furrowed with a hoe.
Dear Lord, chuck it down in buckets.
Translated by Michael Eleftheriou
Πιρπιρίτσα πιρπατεί
Πιρπιρίτσα πιρπατεί
το Θεό παρακαλεί
−Θε μου βρέξι μια βροχή,
μια βροχή μια σιγανή
για τα στάρια, για τα κρ’θάρια
για τ’ Θεού τα παρασπόρια.
Γούρνες, γούρνες το νερό,
’βλάκι1, ’βλάκ’ μι το τσαπί.
Με το καρδάρ’ Θε μ’ να ρίξ’ς.
1’βλάκι: αυλάκι
Pirpiritsa’s song is actually a magical incantation once intoned during a rite of the same name encountered across the entire Greek world. After a prolonged period of drought, villagers would drape a little girl in fresh green leaves and take her round the village, singing all the while and dousing her in water. It was hoped the rite would induce much-needed, life-giving rain through some magical, homeopathic, process. Miranda Terzopoulou (2007)
Translated by Michael Eleftheriou
Recorded in a studio, in 2005.
Domna Samiou taped the song in Athens, sung by a woman who originates from Marathea, Karditsa, in 1978.
