On Vacation: A Mistra song from Evliya

 Gentile Bellini, Turkish Woman, ca. 1480.

 

A song collected by Evliya Çelebi in the late summer of 1668, included in the Mistra section of the Seyatahatname.   Evliya wrote a transliteration of the Greek in Arabic script.  The transliteration into the Latin and Greek alphabets, and the translation are by Pierre MacKay.

Evliya's transcription is remarkable, in part, because Arabic script does not permit the consonant clusters so common in Greek.
 

Kla pste ma tia mou, kla pse te, na ka me te mia vri si,

na rthi sto dil be ra ki mou, na tou ge mi si pi kri

ti e his mav ri ko ra ka, kin ta fte ra sou mav ra,

ki ne tav ga sou me la na, kin ta pou lia sou mav ra?

an e his po no stin kar dia, e la na klem' an ta ma.  

Weep my eyes, oh weep, and make a fountain

that may flow to my lover and fill him with sorrow.

What ails you, black crow, that your feathers are so black?
that your eggs too are black and your chicks black?
If you have trouble in your heart, come let us weep together .

κλάψτε ματιά μου, κλάψετε, νὰ κάμετε μιὰ βρύση.

ν’ἄρθη στὸ ντιλμπεράκι μου, νά του γεμίση πίκρα,

τί ἔχεις μαύpη κόρακα, κ’εἶν’ τὰ φτερά σου μαῦρα,

κ’εἶναι τ’αὐγά σου μελανά, κ’εἶν’ τὰ πουλιά σου μαῦρα;

ἂν ἔχεις πόνο στὴν καρδιὰ, ἔλα νὰ κλαίμ' αντάμα.