Listen
A girl was mowing in a field of wheat
mowing with a child in her belly,
and as she baled she birthed
a golden eagle down onto the hay.
She wrapped it in her apron and wanted rid,
but a partridge piped up with this to say:
– Hard girl, unfeeling girl with the devil inside you!
I’ve eighteen young that I fight to feed,
you’ve the eagle and wish it good riddance!
Translated by Michael Eleftheriou
Μια γκαστρωμένη θέριζε
Μια γκαστρω- μια γκαστρωμένη θέριζε,
μια γκαστρωμένη θέριζε σ’ ένα κοντό σιτάρι,
κι εκεί που, κι εκεί που το δεμάτιαζε,
κι εκεί που το δεμάτιαζε χρυσός αϊτός της πέφτει.
Βάζει τον στην ποδίτσα ντης και πάει να το ’ξορίσει1.
Μια πέρδικα της απαντά, μια πέρδικα της λέει.
– Μαρή σκύλα, μαρή άπονη, μαρή δαιμονισμένη,
εγώ ’χω δεκαοχτώ παιδιά και πολεμώ ν’ τα θρέψω,
κι εσύ έχεις το χρυσόν αϊτό και πας να το ’ξορίσεις.
1να το ’ξορίσει: να το πετάξει
A girl, clearly unmarried, gives birth as she is working in the fields. Desperate to conceal the fact, she tries to rid herself of her new-born child. A partridge, a bird renowned for its tenderness and a poetic symbol of the bride in wedding songs, does its best to dissuade her, reminding her that motherhood is a privilege which nature has bestowed on women. Using the simplest and yet most powerful means, this moving song illuminates the conflict between the laws of nature and the social laws and compulsions that impose themselves on us, but especially on the lives and desires of women, on whom the laws of shame and honour impact most of all. The song usually ends with the young mother replying to the partridge. Her words reveal an awareness of her disadvantaged position relative even to this humble bird.While it is free, she is not:
‘If you have eighteen, you have them and your honour
while my one and only brings me nought but shame.’
Miranda Terzopoulou (2008)
Translated by Michael Eleftheriou
Domna Samiou taped the song in Kalamoti, Chios, in 1976.
