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Geske

Στην Ανατολή στη Δύση

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This is for Antometrios - I am very glad he asked for it.

ΣΤΗΝ ΑΝΑΤΟΛΗ ΣΤΗ ΔΥΣΗ | | | In the East in the West

Μουσική: Μιχάλης Τερζής | | | Music: Michalis Terzis

Στίχοι: Λευτέρης Παπαδόπουλος | | | Lyrics: Lefteris Papadopoulos

Στην Ανατολή στη Δύση | | | In the East, in the West,

καράβι δε θα σεργιανίσει * | | | no ship will set sail

στην ανατολή σαλπάρισα | | | For the East I took ship

τα νιάτα μου σου χάρισα | | | I gave away my youth to you

κι όταν γύρισα πώς βάσταξες | | | and when I came back, how could you,

να πάω στη δύση διάταξες | | | you insisted that I go West.

Στην Ανατολή στη Δύση | | | In the East, in the West,

πουλάκι δε θα κελαηδήσει | | | no little bird will sing

κι απ' τη Δύση εξεκίνησα | | | From the West too I departed

χαλάλι σου ** σού μήνυσα | | | on your head be it, I laid the charge on you,

κι όταν γύρισα πώς μπόρεσες | | | And when I came back, how could you,

και στο Νοτιά με πόρεψες | | | to the South too you set my course.

Στην Ανατολή στη Δύση | | | In the East, in the West,

λουλούδι δε θα ξαν' ανθίσει | | | no flower will bloom

και για το Νοτιά ετράβηξα | | | For the South, too, I set off,

για χάρη σου τι τράβηξα | | | for your sake I travelled over it,

πήγα ο δόλιος ξαναγύρισα | | | I went, poor boy, and I came back,

κι ακόμα δε σε φίλησα | | | and I still I have not kissed you

Στην Ανατολή στη Δύση | | | In the East, in the West,

κανείς δε θα ξανά 'γαπήσει | | | I will not love anyone again.

* literally: no ship will "go for a walk", or "go to take a little turn"

** χαλάλι σου: χαλάλι means something like "in vain"; χαλάλι σου means "you deserve it", or "serves you right" or "on your head be it" - a very useful expression.

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I'd be lying if I understood very well the meaning of this song, but I greatly appreciate your efforts, Geske. One question: "For your sake, I travelled over it / I went, poor boy, and I came back / And I still have not kissed you." I'm reading this as though the speaker is addressing a poor boy. That is to say, he seems to want to kiss ... a boy. Is this an error on your part?

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Yes, it's definitely an error - that is, I made the mistake of following Greek word order, which does not make (the right) sense in English.

I'll give you a little background. The song is very "symmetrical", all the couplets tell the same story, over and over again.

in each couplet

line 1-2 use traditional images (the ship, the bird, the flower) to illustrate that "nothing will happen, nothing will go well"

Then the rest of each couplet describes how

(line 3) «I, poor boy that I am» is sent away travelling all over the world (first East, then West, then South)

(line 4) because his beloved orders him («I gave you my youth», «on your head be it» etc.)

(line 5-6) and every time he comes back she sends him away again (and he says «how could you») but does as she orders

And all in vain, as she never even kissed him.

and in the coda, he decides to give up on love.

I'll see if I can turn out a more intelligible translation, but it's harder than I thought when I first looked at it, because it leans a lot on paradosiaka lyrics, so every word comes with a whole load of traditional images/meanings/symbolism attached (most of which I don't know!).

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Στην Ανατολή στη Δύση    |   |   |   In the East, in the West,

κανείς δε θα ξανά 'γαπήσει   |   |   |   I will not love anyone again.

and in the coda, he decides to give up on love.

He does not speak only about himself:

"κανείς δε θα ξαναγαπήσει" = "nobody will love again"

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Hurray, someone took the trouble to correct my hasty and absent-minded mistake! Thanks Michael.

Here's another version of the same translation, a bit less word-for-word (I've put "but" for «και» a couple of times, which does give the correct meaning but looks a bit startling when you're not used to it). It's still rather a hurry-up-quick job - I know I could do better but I'd have to steal more time for it... So we'll have to make do for the moment.

ΣΤΗΝ ΑΝΑΤΟΛΗ ΣΤΗ ΔΥΣΗ | | | In the East in the West

Μουσική: Μιχάλης Τερζής | | | Music: Michalis Terzis

Στίχοι: Λευτέρης Παπαδόπουλος | | | Lyrics: Lefteris Papadopoulos

Στην Ανατολή στη Δύση | | | In the East, in the West,

καράβι δε θα σεργιανίσει | | | not one ship will set sail [ever again]...

στην Ανατολή σαλπάρισα | | | For the East I embarked,

τα νιάτα μου σου χάρισα | | | I gave away my youth to you,

κι όταν γύρισα πώς βάσταξες | | | but when I came back - how could you! -

να πάω στη Δύση διάταξες | | | you insisted that I go to the West.

Στην Ανατολή στη Δύση | | | In the East, in the West,

πουλάκι δε θα κελαηδήσει | | | not one small bird will sing [ever again]...

κι απ' τη Δύση εξεκίνησα | | | From the West, too, I departed,

χαλάλι σου σού μήνυσα | | | on your head be it, I'm charging you,

κι όταν γύρισα πώς μπόρεσες | | | but when I came back - how could you! -

και στο Νοτιά με πόρεψες | | | to the South you made me set my course.

Στην Ανατολή στη Δύση | | | In the East, in the West,

λουλούδι δε θα ξαν' ανθίσει | | | not a flower will bloom [ever] again...

και για το Νοτιά ετράβηξα | | | And for the South I did set off,

για χάρη σου τι τράβηξα | | | for your sake I travelled all over it,

πήγα ο δόλιος ξαναγύρισα | | | wretch that I am, I went there and came back again,

κι ακόμα δε σε φίλησα | | | but for all that, I still have not kissed you.

Στην Ανατολή στη Δύση | | | In the East, in the West,

κανείς δε θα ξανα 'γαπήσει | | | nobody will love ever again...

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Sorry, Geske, only now I discovered that there is something else to correct:

κι απ' τη Δύση εξεκίνησα    |   |   |   From the West, too, I departed,

χαλάλι σου σού μήνυσα   |   |   |   on your head be it, I'm charging you,

"Χαλάλι σου" does not mean "on your head be it", it is no reproach, accusation etc. It means (see Μπαμπινιώτης): "ας είναι / δεν πειράζει / άξιζε να γίνει", respectively in the phrase "χαλάλι να σου γίνει":

"δεν δυσφορώ για τους κόπους ή τις θυσίες, στις οποίες υποβλήθηκα για χάρη σου, δεν σου κρατώ κακία".

That's exactly the meaning it has in the song. In German it would be something like: "Sei's drum". / "Ich habe es gern für dich gemacht."

Here the translations of "χαλάλι σου / χαλάλι να σου γίνει" in Greek-German dictionaries:

- "gern geschehen" (Mandeson)

- "ich gönne es dir" (Pons)

(I have no idea about a good English translation. The translation of "χαλάλι σου" in the [usually excellent] dictionary by Stavropoulos from which you took your information, seems to me not correct or at least misleading.)

And "μηνύω" here in the context has nothing to do with "I'm charging you". Here "σου μήνυσα" simply means: "σε ειδοποίησα / σου έστειλα μήνυμα ..."

With quotation marks it is easier to see:

"Χαλάλι σου", σου μήνυσα

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Took me a while :D

The best I've been able to find is

κι απ' τη Δύση εξεκίνησα _____||_____ From the West, too, I departed,

χαλάλι σου σού μήνυσα_____||_____ "for you, you're welcome to it" - I told you so

it's not good, but english lacks a verb for the German "goennen" (Dutch "gunnen") - so τι να κάνω;

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