This song by Giorgos Muzakis (Μουζάκης Γιώργος) is a piece in the
genre of light popular music. Quite similar to what you would hear in
America by, say Bing Crosby, at the time
Giorgos was an immensity productive composer, writer, and entertainer;
most of his work was light popular music for theater, music hall and
later TV. It's interesting to note that while the music is
international the subject matter is very Greek, that of hopping on
ship and leaving for far off shore for economic betterment these are
the stuff of Greek popular, song, poetry, literature and legend since
the begging of western history.
Με στη φτώχεια και στην απονιά
έχω ζήσει τα πι’ όμορφα μου χρόνια
γι’ αυτό άνοιξε ναύτη τα πανιά
για να φύγω απ’ αυτό τον ντουνιά
Βίρα τις άγκυρες για ξένους τόπους
να δουν τα μάτια μας άλλους ανθρώπους
σ’ άλλα λιμάνια, σε ξένα μέρη
μας πάει πρίμα μακριά τ’ αγέρι
Βίρα τις άγκυρες και βάλε πλώρη
μακριά απ’ το έρημο το φτωχοχώρι
heartlessness
people
raise, heave ho
firstly (prima), boat
bow(of a ship)
------ Μετάφρασης (translation)------
With all the poverty and heatlessness
I have to search for better times
For that I raise the sail
To leave from the every day people
Heave-ho the anchors for foreign places
To see new faces
Other shores or foreign places
The prime boat takes us far away
Raise the anchors, forward speed
far away from the deaseart of poverty.
A favorite song of mine. In the vain of the happy tramp; I can't
help but compare it with King of the Road, though that was written 20
years later. Though, in reality this song has more in musically and
lyrically with vaudeville hobo songs of the 30s and 40s.
Κι' αν είμαι φτωχός μου μένει ευτυχώς
καρδιά από νέτο χρυσάφι
κι' αν κάτι συμβεί κι’ αυτό θα διαβεί
ποτέ μου δεν μένω στο ράφι
τη φτώχεια γλεντώ με "λα φα σολ ντο"
διαρκώς τραγουδώ σαν κανάρι
τα κορίτσια κοιτώ και τα πλούτη πετώ
γιατί έχω τη φτώχεια καμάρι
Στους δρόμους γυρνώ γελάω ή πονώ
με ήλιο με μπόρα με νέφη
δεν έχω ψωμί σφυρίζω γραμμή
ποτέ δεν μου λείπει το κέφι
Στα κλαδιά τη φωλιά μου σαν να 'μαι πουλί
κι’ αν δεν έχει ασανσέρ δεν με νοιάζει πολύ
στους δρόμους γυρνώ με τον ουρανό
παρέα μου τον γαλανό
Αλήτης κι’ εγώ διαρκώς νοσταλγώ
μα γέλιο τον κάνω τον πόνο
κι’ αν κάποια φορά μου λείψ’ η χαρά
τ’ αστέρια το ξέρουνε μόνο
μου στέκει αδελφός του ήλιου το φως
που κάθε μου ελπίδ’ ασημώνει
κι’ έχω στη σιγαλιά συντροφιά τα πουλιά
τη πηγή τα λουλούδια το χιόνι
Στους δρόμους γυρνώ γελάω ή πονώ...
simple
happens, cross
shelf(bench)
As in Do, Re Mi, Fa ...
wealth
pride
downpour, couds
whistle
always
------ Μετάφρασης (translation)------
Even though I'm poor, I'm left lucky
My heart is of simple gold
And if something happens or crosses me
Never will I be put on the shelf
I laugh at poverty with a La Fa So Do
I watch the girls and disregard wealth
Because poverty is my badge.
In the roads I wonder whether I laugh or cry
With sun, rain or clouds
I might not have livelihood, but I whistle a tune
Never does my joy leave me
In the branches I make my home like a bird
I don't have an elevator, but it doesn't bother me
In the road I wonder with the sky
my gallant friends.
Alitis and I always reminisce
But but laughter sometimes turns
To pain, and my joy leaves
The stars know it
I stand with only their brother, the light of the sun
And all my hopes seem become unimportant
And I have the birds in quiet company the birds
the fountain, the flowers, the the snow
In the roads I wonder whether I laugh or cry
With sun, rain or clouds
I might not have livelihood, but I whistle a tune
Never does my joy leave me...
Σοφία Βεμπο (Sofia Vembo) was a very popular singer during the
40s and 50s. With the attack on Greece by Mussilini on October 28th
Greece entered WWII and Vembo's patriotic song lead her to be called
the tragoudistria tis nikis.
In the late 40s and 50s lent her smokey voice to number of songs
renowned for their sultry, sophisticated and European style. The one
below, Η Ταμπακιέρα, The Cigarette Box, is one of my favorites. I
can't help but think of Marlene Dietrich when I hear it.
Keeping with the theme of the previous post, here is a a movie from the classic period of Greek cinema. In this opening scene the main character, Anestis, talks to no one in particular, except maybe his horse, about how he and his horse are coming to the end of there useful life. In spite of this, Anestis has no intention of replacing his horse.
This scene, then, sets up the rest of the movie which is about the ultimate end of the horse drown taxi -- which persisted in Greece much longer then it did in America but was already antiquated at the time of the movie, 1953 -- and therefore Ansestis' lively hood. But even as the older generation and professions face obsolescence, the younger generation, as represented by Anestis' son, has great difficulties in finding their place amidst the social upheavals and economic hardships that faced Greece in the years after World War II.
(Note, this scene is a bit confusing, as Anestis is not the one sitting as the scene opens, but rather is talking off screen to his own horse, also off screen.)
Ανέστης: Αχ, μωρέ γέρο. Αδυνάτισες. Κοκαλιάρη
σε φωνάζουν πια. Μας πήραν τα χρόνια, ε; Έννοια
σου και δεν σώθηκαν τα ψωμιά μας. Εμείς οι δυο θα ψοφολογήσουμε αγκαλιά.
Άνδρες: Ανέστη, δώσε μου λίγο το πανί.
Ανέστης: Είναι προχθές, μου έφεραν εκείνο το αλογάκι.
Σε τιμή ευκαιρίας, λέει. Ρε τρελαθήκατε τις λέω; Τα γονο Δανδή μου με άλλο άλογό μου; Δεν βλέπω
αυτό το αλογάκι με τον κοκαλιάρη σου; Ρε ουστ!
Ο Άνδρες: Βρε ουστ!
Ανέστης: Δεν ξέρετε τι σας γίνεται. Μπροστά στον
Δανδή μου πιάνει χαρτωσιά άλλο άλογο; Έτσι,
δεν είναι, γέρο;
Ο Άνδρας: Ξέρεις τι σκέφτηκα, ρε Ανέστη; Να ποσάρουν ένα ραδιόφωνο;
Ανέστης: Πού;
Ο Άνδρας: Στ' αμάξι.
Ανέστης: Τι να το κάνεις το ραδιόφωνο; Υπάρχει
ωραιότερα μουσική...
Ανέστης: Αυτά είναι για σας τους παλαιούς....
Skin and bones
significant,
salvage
Reach one's end (die)
cloth
offspring
Whoa!
slight of hand
fix myself
old-fashioned
------ Μετάφρασης (translation)------
Ανέστης: Αχ, μωρέ γέρο. Αδυνάτισες. Κοκαλιάρη σε φωνάζουν πια. Μας
πήραν τα χρόνια, ε; Έννοια σου και δεν σώθηκαν τα ψωμιά μας. Εμείς οι
δυο θα ψοφολογήσουμε αγκαλιά.
Anestis: Ah, old thing. You're becoming thin. Soon they'll be
calling you a sack of bones. The years are passing, eh? Without you
we wouldn't have made our living. We're both headed to oblivioun
together.
Man: Anestis, give me a cloth.
Ανέστης: Είναι προχθές, μου έφεραν εκείνο το αλογάκι. Σε τιμή
ευκαιρίας, λέει. Ρε τρελαθήκατε τις λέω; Τα γονο Δανδή μου με άλλο
άλογό μου; Δεν βλέπω αυτό το αλογάκι με τον κοκαλιάρη σου; Ρε ουστ!
Anestis: It was the day before yesterday they brought me that little
horse. With a good price, it was said. Are you crazy, I said? The
offspring of Dandy with another horse? I can't see my horse for your
nag. There now!
Man: There now.
Anestis: Don't you know what you'd be doing? In front of Dandy
Ανέστης: Δεν ξέρετε τι σας γίνεται. You'd take my Dandy with a slight
of hand? No, that's not going to happen my man.
Man: You know what I'm thinking about? I want to install a radio.
Anestis: Where?
Man: In the carriage.
Anestis: What would you do with a radio? You already have wonderful music - tak tak tak.
Man: That's for the old-fashion like yourself.
A song about the sound of horseshoes on the road, complete with sound-effects. Maybe a bit corny but, but the song's cleverness in incorporating the rhythm of a horses gate give it a certain charm.
For the language learning it's a great source of basic vocabulary on horse riding.
Τα Πεταλάκια
Συνθέτης: Μανώλης Χιώτης
Στιχουργός: Ν. Ρούτσος
Για να βρεις κυρά μου γούστα
πάμε τσάρκα με τη κούρσα
να κρατάς το χαλινάρι
όλο σκέρτσο και καμάρι
Τάκα τάκα τάκα τα πεταλάκια
ντρίγκι ντρίγκι ντρίγκι τα κουδουνάκια
ντρίγκι ντρίγκι ντρίγκι τα κουδουνάκια
τάκα τάκα τάκα τα πεταλάκια
- Ρεφραίν -
Θα τραβήξουμε δυο ούζα
κι ο Ψαρής θα κάνει σούζα
κι αν δεν πάρουμε χαμπάρι
αγκαλιά θα μας τουμπάρει
- Ρεφρέν -
Στη πηγή θα σταματήσω
τ' αλογάκι να ποτίσω
κι αν γουστάρειςμάνι μάνι
θα ξεζέψουμε στο χάνι
- Ρεφρέν -
sally forth, sprint
bridle
Apple of one's eye
horseshoe
bell
go to flight
capsize
jockey
fountain
like, without more ado
unhitch, inn
------ Μετάφρασης (translation)------
To find my zest, madam
let up sally forth with a sprint
grab the bridle
all dark, the apple of my eye
taka, taka, taka the horseshoes
drinki, drinki, drinki, the bells
drinki, drinki, drinki, the bells
taka, taka, taka the horseshoes
To have our two ouzos
and Psaris will take to flight
And if we don't capsize
It will jockey my arms
- refrain -
In the fountain we'll stop
Watering my horse
And for my own thirst, without more ado,
we'll unhitch at the inn.
Much like blues and Jazz in the US, there is a movement toward authentic representation of the Rebetico, especially of how it was played in the clubs of the 40s and 50s and it started to move out of the underworld and gain respectability. The configuration of in the Youtube video below would be quite typical.
Πήρα τη στράτα κι έρχομαι
μεσ' στη βροχή και βρέχομαι
στα σκαλοπάτια σου εγώ σφυρίζω
Άσε με μέσα για να μπω
και στρώσε μου να κοιμηθώ
Να με στεγνώσεις με φιλιά
μεσ' στη ζεστή σου αγκαλιά
και μη μ' αφήσεις πια να ξαναφύγω
κοντά σου πάρε με να 'ρθω
και στρώσε μου να κοιμηθώ
Κανένα μάτι δε θα/(μη μας) δει
πέτα σαν πρώτα το κλειδί
κι έχεις τον λόγο μου, γλυκιά μου αγάπη
στιγμή δε θα σ' απαρνηθώ
και στρώσε μου να κοιμηθώ
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| Δις
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doused
------ Μετάφρασης (Translation) ------
Let me lie down and sleep
I take the street, I'm going
in the rain, I'm getting soaked
On the stairs I knock the door for you
Let me com in, so I can lie down and sleep
Dry me with your kisses
in your warm arms
Don't let me leave again
I'm coming next to you,
Let me lie down and sleep
Not one eye will see us
Throw down the key like you did the first time
You're the reason, my sweet
I'll never doubt you for a second
Let me down so I can sleep
A truly great and iconic Greek singers, Σωτηρία Μπέλλου, her
haunting vocal style, the so called Smyrna style, influences artists
even today. Here she sings a song about being among the ξενιτιά, an
important word in Greek. It means foreign lands, but has a special
significance to the Greeks who ofter have found themselves separated
from the homeland, either by opportunity or out of necessity.
In this song, particularly, the word in reinforced by powerful
symbols being away from home being like a tree without water or bird
without air. Also, a Homeric phrase, black fate, μαύρη μοίρα, serve
to heighten the pathos.
One thing that's quite common in Rebetico songs is the reversing the order of the lines in the refrain, e.g.
τα μπουζούκια παίζουνε γλυκά
δώσε βάση φίλε στη πενιά
followed by:
δώσε βάση φίλε στη πενιά
τα μπουζούκια παίζουνε γλυκά
Perhaps it's the inflected nature of the Greek language that alows the lyricist to more easily preserve the meaning of the lines even when the order is changed?
This is a great song that sounds like an excerpt of the some romantic epic. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find more about it then the contents of the song. Perhaps it is just an invention of the songwriter, Μουζάκης Γιώργος.
Μπουμπουνοκέφαλος: bone-head - dumbhead
I had toyed with the idea of having a "word of the day," which would be various new Greek words I ran across that I thought were interesting. But, I end up decided against it, because just putting up a word and it's definition and some comment like: "I just love the word φεγγάρι and the sound it make when it rolls off the tongue," would be idiotic and not interesting or helpful to others reading the blog. Indeed, every word in the Greek language, as in all languages, is special in some way: when was it first used? What are some surprising usages and meanings of the word? What are common ways the word is misused? How has it's usage or pronunciation changed over time? What language did it come from? Has it reentered the language after leaving it, e.g. Μπράβο: βάρβαρος -> barbaros (lat.) -> bravo (it) -> μπράβο(ελ).
Something along that line would be interesting, but a colossal amount of dedicated work, requiring a level of skill far beyond my own. However, here is a word that I've been looking for some time: Μπουμπουνοκέφαλος. I had thought the pronouciation was 'Πουπουνοκέφαλος'.
It's an insult that was popular in Greek tv and movies in the 60s and 70s but, in current usage seems to have died out a bit - much like many English insults that would have been contemporary with it. I ran into it watching old Greek dubbed episodes of Lucky Luke. Below is a clip from an episode where where the perennial bad guys, the Dalton Brothers, assume fake identities and go into hiding in Canada. The dimwitted brother, Averil, can't quite grasp the idea and ends up being called Μπουμπουνοκέφαλος Τζονες.
Another work by Βασίλης Τσιτσάνης (Vasilis Tsitsanis). This masterfully crafted song is the Rebetico at it's highest artistic level. The song first sets the evocative scene of an old house, now a ruin, where gypsies and fortune tellers are camping out on the arid yard, and a bat flying back to her nest. The singer laments a sad parting of lost love and the scene he's presented becomes a symbol of that love.
The melody is mournful and haunting, the rhythm punctuates the verses while the wailing of the bouzouki animates the ghostly scene and sending shivers down your spine.
But the scene evoked, not only is not only made up of its surface elements but has an inner psychology of its own, what was the house in its previous life? The ancestral home of a luckless family fallen on hard time? A boarding for marginally employed? A brothel?
And the final lines telling of a bat making it's nests in the room where once the singer and his love had been. But the bat doesn't just represent darkness and, with mention of the gypsies and fortunately the presence of spirits or the supernatural: it's not just a cheap use of Halloween shop cobweb in a can. Instead it is balanced as the tender mother returning to her nest to tend for her young.
Στίχοι: Βασίλης Τσιτσάνης, Βλάχος
Μουσική: Βασίλης Τσιτσάνης, Βλάχος
Σε τούτο το παλιόσπιτο
σε τούτο το ρημάδι θάψαμε την αγάπη μας
ένα Σάββατο βράδυ
bury
Στο παλιόσπιτο ετούτο που χωρίσαμε
την βραδιά την τελευταία που μιλήσαμε
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| Δις
Μέσα στην έρημη αυλή
κατά 'π' τα παραθύρια
οι μάγισσες και οι γύφτισσες
να στήσουνε τσαντίρια
put up, paddy
Στο παλιόσπιτο ετούτο που χωρίσαμε
και με δάκρυα ποτάμια το ποτίσαμε
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| Δις
Η νυχτερίδα μοναχή
να χτίσει τη φωλιά της
στην καμαρούλα τ'η μικρή
που πέρνα τα φιλιά της
Στο παλιόσπιτο ετούτο που χωρίσαμε
την βραδιά την τελευταία που μιλήσαμε
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| Δις
------ Μετάφρασης (Translation) ------
In that old house
In that ruin
Our love was buried
One Saturday night
In that hold house where we separated
The last night we ever talked
In the wasteland of a yard
Under the windows
The witches and the gypsies
Setup their wagons
In that hold house where we separated
The last night we ever talked
The lonely bat
Has built her nest
In the small room
Where I kissed you
In that hold house where we separated
The last night we ever talked
Μουζάκης Γιώργος (Giorgos Mouzakis) was a Rebetico legend and his style of bouzouki playing was especially influential for subsequent Rebetico artists and can be heard to this day in Greek popular music. He wrote and recorded hundreds of songs. The one below, Όμορφη Θεσσαλονίκη, (beautiful Thessaloniki)is about his love of Thessaloniki. A topic that comes up often in Rebetico is one's love of a native city, even if your conditions in it were squalid and beset by crime and drugs. Rebetico is a distinctly urban genre and you'll very rarely find the countryside or nature praised. It's often likened to the Blues of America, and at that one might even be tempted to go out on a limb and draw some parallels to hip-hop. Indeed, at various times Rebetico was banned due to it's perceived anti-social influence.
This is a nice modern recording played in a classic style, even down to the costumes. In a Ταβέρνα (tavern, from which we get the English word for the same.) it would be typical for a small band to sit in a row on a small stage, with some tables pushed away and men dancing in front.
When pursuing self study of any language, one of the most important tasks it to find suitable material for study, the biggest criteria being quantity of audio available. (I.e hours of talking.) For being one of the lesser European languages, Greek has a large number of resources available. For instance both Pimsleur series levels I and II and Rosetta Stone I and II are in print, the intermediate and advanced levels of those products are generally reserved for languages like German, French, Spanish and Chinese, and even then coverage is not uniform. Both Hindi, with several hundred million speakers, is only offered through level one proficiency in those courses.
Modern Greek is also well represented in the free online world: there is the colossal FSI course which will teach you an elevated, bureaucratic version of the Demotiki dialect, but also a module teaching the Katherevousa; there is also a podcast put out by the Hellenic American Union that will familiarize you with everyday conversation (Though it does expect you to have some initial provenience in the language when you start.) and there are several other high quality resources as well. But best resource free, or otherwise, is the on-line Greek by Radio Series made available by Kypros-Net at:
http://www.kypros.org/LearnGreek/
This is an amazing resource, impressive for any language, a real treasure for Greek learners. It consists of 105 audio courses, along with transcripts, notes, tables and vocab for each lesson. The course is carefully paced such you need know nothing about Greek when it starts and by end of of it will have master all thee major grammatical points of the Greek language, have been exposed to many everyday conversational settings, learned a vocabulary of over 1000 words and most likely grown very fond of your presenters, Ellie, Andreas and Nico. Unfortunately, there is one draw back to the course. The audio quality is barely acceptable, and the RealPlayer streaming format making it impossible to save or access via mobile devices, like the iPhone.
That, however, hopefully is being remedied. High quality versions of the audio for courses is being posted on YouTube making it much easy for the beginner to develop their pronunciation and making it making it possible to access the content using the latest generation of mobile devices. (Though not quite as convenient as a pod cast. Hopefully someone will endeavor to set one up)
As new audio is posted, I'll update this post to provide links here so that you will have one place to access all the audio files.
This song, in the mold of the last couple, conjures up Mexico, mentioning Acapulco by name. But, actually, this is a Greek version of a Mexican song, most famously, perhaps, done by Julio Iglasias.
Spanish version -- Julio Iglasias
Greek Version -- Three Guitars (Τριο Κιτάρα)
Μαρία Μπονίτα(1951)
Μουσική: Lara Augustin
Στίχοι: Μενεστρέλ Πωλ
Θυμήσου στο Ακαπούλκο τα όμορφα βράδια
Μαρία Μπονίτα γεμάτα χάδια
Θυμήσου πάνω στην άμμο που μούχαν τάξει
χρυσά παλάτια τα δυο σου μάτια
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Θυμήσου τα κυματάκια που αγκαλιάζαν
με παιχνιδάκια το θείο κορμί σου
Στα μάτια εγώ σε κοιτούσα και μέσα από τη ψυχή
μου
να 'σαι δική μου, πως λαχταρούσα
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worship
------ Μετάφρασης ------
Remember the beautiful nights
Maria Bonita, filled with caresses
Remember on the sand that that glance moved
gold palaces, your two eyes
Remember the waves which embraced
playfully your divine body
My eyes saw and my soul longed to
make your my own, how I worship you
I've been toying with this idea for a while: to walk through the last 50 years or so of Greek songs, chronologically, providing Greek lyrics, spot definitions of difficult words, a complete English translation, and links to where they can be found on the Internet. I've compiled a list of about 400 songs that I'd like to do and my last couple of posts have been working on the format for it.
I think it's something that would be fun and particular worthwhile for language learners. Who hasn't had the experience of have a song in their head that they couldn't get rid of? Imagine if that song were Greek. Those words suddenly become part of you. You understand what they mean at a gut leave.
The Greek is particularly well suited to this style of learning because Greek vowels are pure they are sung as they are pronounced. So, once you've learned to sing along to a song, you've learned to say the lyrics with perfect pronunciation. In addition Geek is by nature a lyrical language, there is not as much difference between the language of poetry and the language of prose in Greek as there is in other languages. That's why the two Noble prizes for literature won by Greeks have gone to poets, and even Greeks greatest prose writer, Kazantzakis, thought of himself as poet first and novelist second. In dead nearly all of Greece's best writers are poets.
So, hopefully you will find reading this as useful and entertaining I do writing it.
In the tradition of (proto) Exotica we have The Three Guitars (Τριο Κιτάρα) crooning about the wonders of Hawaii. One might be tempted to ask why a country with the highest island to citizen ratio in the world, and which is indeed indeed the summer vacation destination of all Europe, would have popular songs about a time consuming and expensive to reach (especially in the 50s from Greece) island. But perhaps such is the artistic license that we must give all songs. But, maybe the second line gives the clue:
πάντα σ' αυτές την ομορφιά κυνηγώ .
It is the sea faring, adventurous spirit of the Greek people who have never been satisfied with just the Aegean, but even in ancient times sailed and colonized as far afield as Gaul and North Africa.
Ακρογιαλιές ονειρευτές νοσταλγώ
πάντα σ' αυτές την ομορφιά κυνηγώ
μόνο εκεί μπορεί η αγάπη και ζει
μόνο εκεί αν θέλεις πάμε μαζί
όλα κει τ' ακούς να τραγουδούν
σαν τα χαρούμενα πουλιά στη σιγαλιά
Σε μαγικά νησιά θέλω να βρεθούμε
εκεί που οι καρδιές ξέρουν ν' αγαπούνε
μακριά θέλω να βρεθούμε στη Χαβάη
μακριά σ' όλη τη ζωή μας εγώ κι εσύ
Στη γαλανή βραδιά τ' άστρα που γελούνε
κιθάρες μαγικές να μας τραγουδούνε
εκεί στ' όμορφο νησί μας θέλω να βρεθούμε
μαζί σ' όλη τη ζωή μας εγώ κι εσύ
Στη γαλανή βραδιά τ' άστρα που γελούνε
κιθάρες μαγικές να μας τραγουδούνε
εκεί στ' όμορφο νησί μας θέλω να βρεθούμε
μαζί σ' όλη τη ζωή μας εγώ κι εσύ
------ Μετάφρασης ------
I long for dreamy beaches
I've always hunted for such beauty
Only there love can live
Only there I want us to go together
Everywhere there you hear songs
like happy whistling birds
On the magic isle, I want to be found
There where hearts know how to love
Far away I want to be found in Hawaii
Far from our everyday life, you and me
In the deep blue, the stars laugh
Magical guitars sing to us
There on our beautiful isle I want to be found
Far from our everyday life, you and me
On the magic isle, I want to be found
There where hearts know how to love
Far away I want to be found in Hawaii
Far from our everyday life, you and me
Θέλω ρούμπα να χορεύω
με το νου να ταξιδεύω
και να πάω σ’ άλλα μέρη
σε μια χώρα εξωτική
Να φορέσω ένα σομπρέρο
να με κυβερνά ο έρως
να 'μαι φίνος καμπαλέρος
κάπου στην Αμερική
sombrero
fine
Α για για για, Α για για για
με μαράκες και ξυλάκια
πάνε κάτω της ημέρας τα φαρμάκια
και μια ρούμπα που χορεύω
γίνετ’ όνειρο για μένα η ζωή
Α για για για, Α για για για
ρούμπα α τσίκι, τσίκι ρούμπα
μ’ αρέσει να χορεύω και να γλεντώ
ωωω ωωω
------ Translation ------
I want to dance the Rumba
Which takes me to another place
To another exotic foreign land
To wear a sombrero
Where I'm a fine camballero
Somewhere in America
ay ay ay ay, ay ay ay ay
With the marakas and claves
The drug goes down and
Life becomes a dream to me
Rumba a tsiki tsiki rumba
I like to dance and be happy.
