Καρδιά μου, μην παραπονιέσαι

[Geske 37]

Καρδιά μου, μην παραπονιέσαι || Dear heart, don't hurt so

Μουσική: ’κης Πάνου || Music: Akis Panou

Στίχοι: ’κης Πάνου || Lyrics: Akis Panou

Καρδιά μου μην παραπονιέσαι || Dear heart, don't complain so,

εσύ τα φταις που τυραννιέσαι || this torment is your own doing.

Το 'ξερες πως θα σε κάψει || You knew that it would consume you,

η φωτιά που θα σ' ανάψει || that fire, that it would inflame you.

την εγνώριζες || You were warned.

Έλιωνες απ' τον καημό σου || Even as your grief was melting you,

μα στιγμή απ' το πλευρό σου || not for an instant, from your side

δεν τη χώριζες || you would let her go.

Καρδιά μου μην παραπονιέσαι || Dear heart, don't grieve so,

εσύ τα φταις που τυραννιέσαι || this torment is your own doing.

Πως μπορούσε να σου δώσει || That she might give you

μαχαιριά να σε σκοτώσει || a knife-stab, [that she might] kill you

δεν το σκέφτηκες || you never thought of that

Την επίστεψες στ' αλήθεια || You trusted her truly

μα σου πλήγωσε τα στήθια || but she stabbed your breast

και παιδεύτηκες || and you suffered

Καρδιά μου μην παραπονιέσαι || Dear heart, don't hurt so

εσύ τα φταις που τυραννιέσαι || this torment is your own doing

[Geske 37]

Dalaras said in a recent interview that the old rembetika sometimes had godawful lyrics, and when the great poets came and gave the lyrics of the songs, it was a gate to paradise opening for Greek song.

This song is definitely rembetiko, not so very old though, but definately written by a man who is not a poet (not the kind you give Nobel prizes to anyway) - the kind Nikos Papazoglou means in "εγώ δεν είμαι ποιητής, γράφω στοιχάκια".

But it's great poetry all the same.

And it's very hard to translate into English because English lacks most of the key words and all of the precise meanings of the verbs.

I'll detail the worst cases.

The first half line means equally "dear heart", "my little heart" and "my poor heart" - putting all of them is ineffective because it's too long, but putting only one is losing two thirds of the meaning.

The second half of the line can mean: "don't complain" but also "do not be hurt"... (thanks Annette!)

Then there is

Το 'ξερες πως θα σε κάψει || You knew that it would consume you,

η φωτιά που θα σ' ανάψει || that fire, that it would inflame you,

την εγνώριζες || you knew it [the fire] long before

OR

Το 'ξερες πως θα σε κάψει || You knew that the fire would consume you

η φωτιά - που θα σ' ανάψει || that she was going set you on fire

την εγνώριζες || you knew what she was like

For the second line, the rhythm of the music seemed to me to supply the punctuation and suggest the solution I put.

For the third, I can't tell if the την refers to the fire in the line above, or to the woman in the verses below. Anyhow I feel that in essence that woman and the fire are one, but in English the fire is 'it' not 'she' and... I put something less literal but which does cover both meanings.

And in case you didn't know yet - YES i really am a translator with LOTS of professional deformations and YES i REALLY do appreciate when people point out my mistakes in these things!

As I said to someone the other day "compliments are nice but they don't count as help".