Artist: Ψαραντώνης (Psarantonis)
Album: ΟΙ ΡΙΖΕΣ ΜΟΥ (1983) - i rizes mou [my roots]
**Link to Spotify **
The Song
This is one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite Cretan musicians.
The song is in the Cretan traditional style called Rizitiko, where lyrics are usually prose-like and about traditions or folklore.
The song led me to research the story behind the lyrics. It turns out they are based on epic poetry about Byzantine folklore. This ultimately lead me to read a book, that was a compilation of all the different versions of the folklore, into a cohesive unit.
I wrote the lyrics of the song down below in Greek along with my English translation. I also included my own English phonetics for pronouncing the Greek if you care or dare.
The Story
Digenis , who is the focal point of the song, was also the protagonist of the Byzantine folklore and epic poetry mentioned above. He was a heroic border-guard (think of a slightly more human Thor or Heracles) born of mixed lineage, his father an Arab-muslim and mother a Greek-christian (daughter of a great general). Hence the name Digenis which means double-born, or descended of two different ethnicities/faiths. As a border-guard, he was tasked with patroling the edges of the empire. According to the tales did so successfully, in style and usually single-handedly.
Mavrogordato, John. Digenes Akrites. Clarendon Press, 1999.
The Lyrics
In Greek:
ΡΙΖΙΤΙΚΟ
(παραδοσιακό)
Οι Σέρβοι κ'οι Σαρακηνοί κ'οι Μώροι κάνουν γάμο,
όλο τον κόσμο τον καλούν κ όλο τον περμαζώνουν.
Τον Διγενή δεν τον καλούν για της κακές του οι πράξεις,
γιατί σκοτώνει τσι γαμπρούς κ τσι νυφάδες παίρνει.
Μωρέ παλιοσαρακηνοί κ εσείς οι παλιομώροι,
σαν ποιο γαμπρό εσκότωσα κ τίνος νύφη επήρα.
English Translation:
[Song] Of Roots (traditional)
The Serbs and Saracens and the Moors are making a wedding,
the whole world they invite and all they're rounding up.
[But] Digenis they don't invite for his terrible deeds,
because he kills the grooms and the brides he takes.
Hey old-saracens and you old-moors,
[but] like which groom did I kill and who's wife take.
English phonetics:
Rizitiko
(paradosiako)
i servi k'i sarakini k'i mori kanoun** gamo,
olo ton kosmo ton kaloun k olo ton permazonoun.
ton diyeni* den ton kaloon gia tis kakes tou i praksis,
yati skotoni tsi gambrous k tsi nifades perni.
moreh*** paliosarakini k esis i paliomori,
san pio gambro eskotosa k tinos nifi epira.
*"d" sound is pronounced like "_th_ey"
**"ou" sound is pronounced like "sp_oo_n"
***"eh" sound is pronounced like "p_e_n"
I found the following paper that is about the epic poems, which I haven't read yet but plan to:
The Formation of a Hero in Digenes Akrites
I was inspired by 