Listen
...
Let Martha and let Mary come and Lazarus’ mother
and John the Baptist’s sister too, all four of them together.
They took the path, they took the path, the path that was a footpath,
and so the path led them in time right to the gypsy’s doorway.
– Hello there, gypsy, what’s afoot, what are you busy making?
– Some Jews have left an order here for me to make them nails,
they ordered four in all from me, but I am making five.
– Then, Pharaoh, since you’re making them, pray tell me what they’re for.
– Well, two of them will pierce his hands, the other two his feet,
the fifth, the truly fatal one, will pierce his heart right through.
...
Translated by John Leatham
Το μοιρολόι της Παναγιάς (Φούρνοι Ικαρίας)
...
– Ας έρθ’ η Μάρθα κι η Μαριά και του Λαζάρου η μάνα
και του Προδρόμου η αδερφή κι οι τέσσερις αντάμα.
Επήραν το στρατί-στρατί, στρατί το μονοπάτι
και ο στρατίς τους έβγαλε στ’ ατσίγγανου την πόρτα.
– Ώρα καλή σ’ ατσίγγανε κι ίντα που μαστορεύεις;
– Οβραίοι μου παραγγείλανε καρφιά για να τους φιάξω,
μου παραγγείλαν τέσσερα, μα ’γώ τους φτιάχνω πέντε.
– Συ Φαραέ που τά ’φτιαξες, εσύ θα μου διδάξεις.
– Τα δυο θα μπουν στα χέρια του και τ’ άλλα δυο στα πόδια,
το πέμπτο το φαρμακερό θα μπει μες στην καρδιά του.
...
The Moirolόϊ or Lament of the Virgin, very widely known throughout Greek lands, is a long medieval rhyming poem of literary origin, but impressively familiar to broad sections of the populace. Influenced by relevant passages in the Gospels and by Church hymnography, it is an anthropocentric narrative lament for the sufferings of Christ on the way to his crucifixion and death, as observed and felt by his tragic mother. Chanted by women around Christ’s tomb in the manner and style of the mundane dirges they know so well, it expresses their compassion and identification with the maternal, human nature of the Virgin. Nonetheless, the way in which it is ritually performed lays bare the custom’s pre-Christian origins.
While there are local differences in some features of the song or in its melodic treatment, the structure and form of the moirolόϊ as well as its performance bear impressive similarities to those sung in lands as far apart as Lower Italy, Pontos, and Cyprus. The continuity of its narrative flow is clearly evinced in the sequence we have dared to select here of passages occurring in versions of varied provenance. Miranda Terzopoulou (1998)
Translated by John Leatham
Recorded in a studio, in 1978.
