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As Akritas was ploughing near the river,
back and forth he went and ploughed five furrows a day,
back and forth he went and sowed nine bushels of seed a day.
A bird came and perched on the edge of the yoke,
then sat smack bang in the middle.
– Get back, bird, or the cattle prod might get you.
And the bird spoke in a human voice.
– Where are you standing, Akritas, and what are you waiting for?
Somebody has ruined your home and abducted your wife,
and dragged your little ones into the fields.
He spurred his horse on and got there soon enough.
– Open up, guards, open up and let me in.
The guards opened the gate and Akritas went in.
Some gave him stools to sit on, others offered drinks.
But he would not sit and he would not drink.
Drawing his sword from its golden scabbard,
he slew a thousand men in front of him and ten thousand to his rear,
then seized the maiden and left for nine nights and days.
Translated by Michael Eleftheriou
Ακρίτας όνταν έλαμνεν
Aκρίτας όνταν έλαμνεν αφκά σην ποταμέαν,
επέγνεν κι έρτουν κι έλαμνεν την μέραν πέντ’ αυλάκια,
επέγνεν κι έρτουν κι έσπερνεν εννέα κότα σπόρον.
Και ν-έρθεν πουλίν κι εκόνεψεν ση ζυγωνί’ την άκραν,
και σκούται καλοκάθεται ση ζυγωνί’ την μέσην.
– N-oπίσ’ πουλίν, οπίσ’ πουλίν, μη τρως την βουκεντρέα.
Και το πουλίν ελάλησεν ανθρώπινον λαλέαν.
– Ντό στέκ’ς, ντό στέκ’ς Aκρίτα μου και τίναν αναμένεις;
Tο γ-ένοικό σ’ εχάλασαν και την καλή σ’ επέραν
και τα μικρά τα πούλοπα σ’ σο περιβόλ’ εσύραν.
Βιτσοκοπά τον μαύρον ατ’ και φτάν’ και κοντεφτάνει.
– Ανοίξετέ με, νε πορτάρ’, ανοίξτε να σεμπαίνω.
Ενοίξαν ατον οι πορτάρ’, εμπαίν’ απές Ακρίτας.
Άλλοι σκαμνία δίγν’ ατον, άλλοι καυκίν απλών’νε
και σο σκαμνίν ’κί κάθεται και το καυκίν ’κί παίρει.
Έσυρεν το σπαθίν ατου ας σο χρυσόν θηκάρι,
χίλιους εμπρός εσκότωσεν και μύριους από πίσω
κι επέρεν την κόρ’ κι έφυγεν εννιά νύχτας κι ημέρας.
1έλαμνεν: όργωνε.
2επέγνεν κι έρτουν: πηγαινοερχόταν, δηλαδή οδηγώντας το βοϊδάλετρο κατά τη συνηθισμένη φιδίσια κίνηση των ζευγολατών απ’ τη μια άκρη του χωραφιού στην άλλη.
3κότα: μονάδα μέτρησης για δημητριακά.
4ζυγωνι': του ζυγού
5βουκέντρα: είναι ραβδί με αιχμηρή απόληξη με το οποίο κεντρίζουν τα βόδια του αρότρου.
6το γ-ένοικό σ': το σπίτι, τον οίκο σου.
7τα πουλόπα σ’: τα μωρά σου. Παρατονισμένο για λόγους μέτρου.
8πορτάρ': οι φύλακες της πύλης.
9καυκίν: κούπα για κέρασμα.
10υπονοείται ότι φτάνει στο γάμο της γυναίκας του και προλαβαίνει να τον αποτρέψει.
Digenis Akritas is the protagonist in two groups of songs: those that deal with his death (the set with which our second CD ends), and those whose action centres on the ancient and universal theme of a woman’s abduction. This second group of songs can be further split into those in which Digenis is the interloper who abducts his wife-to-be, and those in which it is Digenis’ own wife who is kidnapped by other akrites or by Saracen bandits.
This double CD includes examples of every type and sub-type. We chose the most significant song in the first group, the long Cypriot narrative The abduction of Levandis’ daughter by Digenis Akritas. The story goes like this: two gypsies tell Digenis that King Levandis is marrying his daughter to Giannakos, whom Digenis considers unworthy of the bride. He sends the hostage Philiopappous as an emissary to press his own suit, but the king rejects him because of Digenis’ mixed blood. Resentful at his rejection, Digenis fashions a magic tamboura and beguiles the bride with its music; however, she still sets him a feat to perform as a challenge. When Digenis completes the challenge, the girl elopes with him. The king sends an army after them, but Digenis vanquishes them and avenges the insult.
The second group is represented by a variation from Pontos (Black Sea). It begins with the classic Akritic motifs of the ploughman Akritas and of the bird which warns him in human speech – motifs we also encounter (with a different message, of course) in songs about Digenis’ death.
A large number of narrative songs, Akritic or not, old or more recent, deal with the abduction of a woman whose husband is away; he may be fighting in the wars, in prison or doing forced labour – the plots vary. Yet again, all these songs – along with a number of folk tales and accounts both oral and written in the Greek, but also the Eastern and Western traditions – would seem to have taken this old, multi-layered myth as their shared starting point.
However, over and above their central theme, both songs display a number of other poetic elements which confirm their affinity to an old and virtuosic epic narrative tradition which bestows on them the singular ‘Akritic’ quality of conveying both the time and place of the Akritas’ actions so impressively, without actually belonging to either. Mythic figures and names from the Digenis epic, their peacetime activities or brave feats, the lords in their palaces, the noble steeds and talking birds, savage beasts and dragons, the danger from border raids, the abductions and retaliations, the restless armies and invincible heroes – all part of a world of adventure that transcends time and historical space – have permeated these songs, surviving there on the margins not of a geographical entity, but of the human soul and imagination. Miranda Terzopoulou (2016)
