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
|
|
| Δις
|
|
| Δις
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
|
| 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
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
|
|
|
|
|
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
|
|
|
| Τρις
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.
Αφού γράφω για το θέμα στο ελληνικό τραγούδι, αυτό είναι ένα άλλο, ένα από το αγαπημένα τραγούδια. Δεν μπορώ να βρίσκω μια μεταγλώσσα στο Internet, τότε εφοδιάζω την δική μου που ελπίζω ότι θα βρήκατε χρήσιμη.
[Since I'm writing about Greek sons, here's another - one of my favorite. I wasn't able to find a translation on the Internet, so I'm providing one that I hope you find useful.]
Είμαστε αλάνια,
διαλεχτά παιδιά μέσα στην πιάτσα
και δεν την τρομάζουν
οι φουρτούνες τη δική μας ράτσα
Τι τα θες, τι τα θες, πάντα έτσι είν' η ζωή
θα γελάς ή θα κλαις βράδυ και πρωί.
Κάθε μας μεράκι
γίνεται τραγούδι και το λέμε
και μες' στα στραπάτσα |
μάθαμε ποτέ μας να μην κλαίμε. | Δις
Κι αν στην κοινωνία
μας χτυπούν αλύπητα οι μπόρες
μέσα στο τραγούδι |
φεύγουνε χαρούμενες οι ώρες. | Δις
|
| Δις
|
| Δις
gutter child
chosen, stand
race
dilapidation
community
crappy thing
remorse, shower
------ Translation ------
We're gutter children
Those chosen for the streets
But we don't fear our fate
What would you want, what would you want?
Life has always been like this: laughter and and tears – night and day.
Every crappy thing becomes a song we sing
and amid the dilapidation we never cry.
Misfortune rains upon us,
But in our songs we pass the hours with joy.
Τότε, θα δούμε αν μπορώ να γίνομαι ακόμα βλάκα με τα ελληνικά γλώσσα μου. :-)
Άκουζα ένα παλιό τραγούδι, Ζαχαριάς και Αντζουλίνα που μπορείτε να βρείτε εδώ:
Όντως, εκείνο είναι το ίδια εγγραφή που Άκουζα. Οι Στοιχοι είναι:
Στίχοι: Νάσος Φακίδης
Μουσική: Νάσος Φακίδης
Μια φορά κι έναν καιρό
σε μεγάλο σπιτικό
καμαριέρης της κυρίας
ήτανε ο Ζαχαρίας
και κουμάντο στην κουζίνα
έκανε η Αντζουλίνα.
Τα εφτιάξανε οι δυο τους
και περνούσαν τον καιρό τους
μ' όρκους και φιλιά και χάδια
επερνούσανε τα βράδια
τραγουδώντας στην κουζίνα
ο Ζαχαριάς κι η Αντζουλίνα
Στο 'ρκίζουμ' Αντζουλίνα μου στην πρώτη ευκαιρία.
Μπράβο, μπράβο, μπράβο Ζαχαρία.
Πως θα σε κάνω μια έμμορφη και μια τρανή κυρία.
Μπράβο, μπράβο, μπράβο Ζαχαρία.
Κι εγώ για σένανε θ' αφήσω πιάτα και κουζίνα.
Μπράβο, μπράβο, μπράβο Αντζουλίνα.
Και θα περνάμε όμορφα και θα περνάμε φίνα.
Μπράβο, μπράβο, μπράβο Αντζουλίνα.
Θα ζούμ' οι δυο μας σ' ένα σπιτάκι
και θα σκαρώσουμε κι ένα παιδάκι.
Αντζουλίνα σ' αγαπώ,
Αντζουλίνα σε ποθώ,
Αντζουλίνα θα σε πάρω
με παπά και με κουμπάρο.
Μη φοβάσαι Ζαχαριά έχω και εγώ καρδιά
μοναχά βρε Ζαχαρία μην το μάθει η κυρία.
Όνειρα και παραμύθια γίνανε λοιπόν αλήθεια
και παντρεύτηκαν μια μέρα κι έγιν' η Αντζουλιώ μητέρα
κι έτσι πιάσαν το σπιτάκι και το πρώτο το παιδάκι
Επεράσανε τα χρόνια, ήρθαν φτώχειες στενοχώρια
γκρίνιαζε η Αντζουλίνα που δεν τα περνούσε φίνα
και ξεσπούσε με μανία στο φτωχό τον Ζαχαρία
Ανάθεμά σε Ζαχαριά που 'χασα την κουζίνα. Σώπα, σώπα, σώπα Αντζουλίνα.
Βρε τι να σωπάσω που 'λεγες πως θα 'χα λιμουζίνα.
Σώπα, σώπα, σώπα Αντζουλίνα.
Σιγά-σιγά Αντζουλίνα μου και θα 'ρθει η ευκαιρία. Πάψε, πάψε, πάψε Ζαχαρία.
Θ' αλλάξουνε τα πράγματα και θα γενείς κυρία. Σκάσε, βούλωσε το Ζαχαρία.
Παιδάκια μου 'πες θα κάνουμε 'να
κι εμείς σκαρώσαμε δέκα και ένα.
Στα κομμάτια Ζαχαριά δεν είναι αυτή δουλειά
στα κομμάτια Ζαχαρία, πιο καλά ήταν στην κυρία
Αντζουλίνα σ' αγαπώ,
Αντζουλίνα σε ποθώ
Αντζουλίνα, Αντζουλίνα
τα περνάμε οι δυο μας φίνα
swear
splendid, well-to-do
refined
cobble-together
best man
discomfort
errupt
come now
get over
shut up, cork it
Η μουσική είναι πολύ γλεντά αλλά οι στοίχοι είναι για ένα σκληρό γάμο. Θυμάμαι για ένα άλλα αμερικανικά τραγούδια που έκαναν διάσημος ο Johny Cash και η June Carter, Jackson.
I've been reading lately an interesting book called Modern Greek in Asia Minor. A book written before The Great Catastrophe, and captures the dialect there before the population exchange. The second half of the book is made up of very short stories and fables.
One that's rather amusing is the story of the Cyclops and the Seven Priests. This story shares some obvious similarities with the tale of Odysseus and the cyclops. Amusingly, Cyclops, a Greek word (κύκλωπης) meaning round eye (κύκλος and οφθαλμός), is rendered in Turkish, as τεπεκόζη.
Κάτι βρίσκω ενδιαφέρουσα είναι ότι περισσότεροι δεν ξέρουν τίποτα από το Καθαρεύουσα. Ξέρω κάτι κατά αρχαία ελληνική γλώσσα, βεβαίως. Πρέπουν να την σπουδάζουν μερικά χρόνια. Και ξέρουν ότι ελληνικά έγραφαν με το πολυτονικό σύστημα. Αλλά, δεν ξέρουν τη λέξη 'καθαρεύουσα' ή κάτι κατά πολυτονικό σύστημα.
Αυτό είναι ένα YouTube, ότι μιλάει λίγα απ' αυτό.
Πέμπτη, Ιουλίου 31, 2008
Not much blog activity in the last 2 months... I have to say that blogging about learning a language is a bit challenging. Learning a language, especially one as relatively difficult as Modern Greek, and pursuing one's career and having a personal life is not easy. It demands effort everyday and whenever making a blog entry you have to ask yourself whether you should really be blogging or reviewing dialogs, reviewing your vocab or doing some misc. reading. By and large I've chosen the later, with the result that I've actually made quite a bit of progress, finishing both Pimsleur and Rosetta stone courses.
