Σε τούτο το παλιόσπιτο (1950)

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	| | 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	| | 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	| | 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