Ζωγραφική στο ιατρικο κεντρο Επισκοπής

The Dead Brother’s Song

(Lyrics by Tania Christoforatou,

inspired by a 1000-year old Greek folk poem)

(refrain)

I lived with my brothers and my sister

and then I moved like a twister

I’d been riding on a dark cloud; I’d been a ghost rider

I’d been this life’s outsider

 ..................................

Mother, you had nine sons and an only daughter

beautiful like the sun, her voice clearer than water

We were living happily all together in a quiet place,

at a quiet pace, out of time and space…

And then,

Matchmakers came from Babylon asking her to go get married far away

Everyone said no, but I said “It is okay”

“we’ll travel abroad, we’ll travel around,

we’ll see other places, away from this town”

“What will happen” asked my mother “if I fall sick on the bed

if I fall ill, if I fall dead?”

“Who will go get my daughter back

who will fill up her lack?”

It was then that the knot was tied; it was then that the rivers dried;

it was the moment I regret until now; it was then that I took the sacred vow:

I swore to the sky, I swore to the earth,

that in case an illness, an urgency or death,

would hit our house, my brothers, my mother

I wouldn’t let her a moment to suffer

I would ride my horse, as fast as the wind

to bring back our sister for her to be relieved.

With these words of mine, everyone was convinced

and my sister was married and left for the east.

But without her, our life turned dark and there ceased every feast.

Days were coming and going and our sorrow increased.

Then, a leap-year flew in with the black wings of disease

and my brothers were swept over like yellow leaves at the breeze.

I soon followed their way towards the tomb

and our mother was left alone in despair and gloom.

She was weeping and wailling and pounding her chest,

through the soil of my grave I heard her voice repeating a request:

“How are you going to keep your promise, my son,

now that darkness has covered the light of sun?”

Her grieving voice grabbed me through my gravestone

and pulled me out, as a frozen hand, bone by bone.

I was mounted on a dark cloud by the same force

and it dashed forward as a wild horse.

We rode in the day, we rode at night

and I found my sister combing her hair under the moonlight.

I asked her to come with me back to our mother

She asked in dismay, “Why, my brother,

why have you come at this time of the night?

Is it for merriment, is it for happiness

is it for sorrow, is it for sadness?

If it’s for joy let me wear a nice dress

Or let me dress in black if it’s for distress.”

“Come, sister, now, as quickly as possible”

I grabbed her and sat her on the horse back

And the cloud rashed towards our mother’s broken heart.

On the way back, we heard ravens talking in human voice

saying that no one would rejoice

if he saw a beautiful girl pulled over by a freaking dead.

These words striked terror into her heart

and she asked me if I heard what the ravens said.

I told her to close her ears to words without any sense

And she asked me in panic why I smelled of incense,

where my beauty had gone, where I’d lost all my hair.

Didn’t know what to answer, I was in dispair.

We finally arrived at the graveyard church

where the crows were nesting on a tall silver birch

My grave was here and my mother was near.

We got off the horse and she ran to her full of fear.

They embraced and dropped dead without shedding a tear.

The curse was broken and I felt relief and pain

and another force dragged me down to the dark earth domain

And my soul calmed down and my heart felt no fear

‘cause the oath was completed and the debt disappeared…

                                   ©Tania Christoforatou

         

               you can read the poem in Greek here

http://ebooks.edu.gr/modules/ebook/show.php/DSGL-A111/262/1913,6307/