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My love-bird far away from home, my love who's broken-hearted,
- o, absent love of mine,
those foreign lands greet you with joy, while I am pining for you.
What should I send you, absent love, to you so far from home now.
I send an apple and it rots, a quince it simply shrivels;
I send you, then, a tear of mine in a fine cotton kerchief;
my tear, alas, is searing hot and sears the cotton karchief.
Translated by John Leatham
Ξενιτεμένο μου πουλί
Ξενιτεμένο μου πουλί και παραπονεμένο
η ξενιτιά σε χαίρεται κι εγώ ’χω τον καημό σου.
Tι να σου στείλω ξένε μου εκεί στα ξένα πού ’σαι;
Μήλο σου στέλνω σέπεται κυδώνι μαραγκιάζει
σου στέλνω και τα δάκρυα μου σ’ ένα χρυσό μαντήλι
τα δάκρυα μου ’ναι καφτά και καίνε το μαντήλι.
Emigration songs are to be found in several parts of Greece, since emigration has a long history. Epirus especially is one of the regions which have been drained the most by emigration, and many of the Greek workers in Sweden and Germany come from these parts.
The text tells of a mother's sorrow over her emigrated son.
The "Pogonisios" dance from the Pogoni province of Epirus is danced by both men and women and has six steps.
The song was recorded in a studio, in 1979.
