Modern Greek Popular Songs

RIGI

Rigi weeps-Rigi weeps like the dove;

Rigi laments like the partridge.

Yachos says, "Girl white as snow,

Girl sweet as melons, tell me your sorrow."

"I search, Yachos, though I find it not,

I search for the plant which gives immortality."

Yachos goes to the mountain and he comes again.

"Rigi, I kiss your eyes-here is the plant."

Rigi carries the plant to her lips,

But Rigi weeps like the dove,

Rigi laments like the partridge.

"This is not the plant which gives immortality,

Yachos! This is the plant of love you have given me."

"Why should you weep, Rigi?

Is it not love which gives immortality?"

And Rigi's tears are dried.

SONG

O my sweet dove, when I kissed you it was night; but the

night told it to the dawn, the dawn to a star, the star to

the moon.

The moon leaned down and told it to the sea, the sea told

it to the oar, and the oar to the sailor.

Thus it is that the sailor sings of our love.

The sailor says that you love me; and the oar, the sea, the

moon, the star, the dawn and the night repeat the echo of

his voice.

You only have not yet told it me.

But I know it!

SPRING

Sleep no more, my heart! March and May are come; the

swallows return; and the doves, two and two, descend to

the fountain.

Yesterday, returning from the isles, I passed before her

window. She was watering her basil, she was giving to

drink to her flower of mint.

She cut a spray of basil, she cut a flower of mint; and she

gave them me.

Sleep no more, my heart! March and May are come; the

swallows return; and the doves, two and two, descend to

the fountain.

THE RED FISH

I kissed her red lips; they dyed my own.

I wiped them with a kerchief, and the kerchief was dyed.

I washed the kerchief in the stream and the shores of the

stream were dyed; the waves of the sea kissed the shores

of the stream, and the sea grew red.

That is why the little fish are grown red also; that is why,

when I see them flickering, I think of Photini of the red

lips.

From Antonin Proust's French version: by Eunice Tietjens