Aunt Shataflia was bitten by a dog and went rabid.
Rabies, then, was the worst of evils –
no one got better, everybody died.
We killed and buried dogs
so that the evil would not spread,
and we killed and buried the dog that bit Aunt Shataflia.
But what to do with the old rabid woman?
Only God could seize her spirit.
And yet the rabid can’t roam free.
We locked Aunt Shataflia in a barn, made a hole in the roof,
and poured buckets of water down onto her.
She shrieked all day and night and died in pain,
alone, she and God, her frozen eyes
open in torment.
No one was there to close them as she died.
Translated from Arvanitika:
Rabies (Λίσα)
Πλιάκενε Σιατάφιλι ε κέι ζίνε νιέ κενν ιλισιάσουρε εδέ ου λισιάσε εδέ αγιό.
Λίσα άτα βίτρα ισ’ μπ’ εμάδα εκέκιε –
ψε ντονί ιλισιάσουρε σμπίνεϊ μίρε εδέ βντίσε.
Λίσα ζιι γκα κένντε εδέ κουρ εμίρε μίρε, νιέριζιτε τσ’ ε κέινε,
ε βρίσνε κενν εδέ ε κάουινε
πρ τ’ μόσε χάπει λίσα.
Aστού ου μπ’ εδέ πρ κενν τσ’ ζου πλιάκενε Σιατάφιλι.
Πο τσ’ μπίνετε νάνι, πρ πλιάκενε τσ’ ισ’ λισιάσουρε?
Ντονιέ σδινίσετε τ’ μάρε σπίρτινε νίετ νιερίουτ, βέτιμε ινιζότε.
Πο σι τ’ λιέσσε νιέ τ’ λισιάσουρε σκλίδουρε τσ’ ο ζίρε εδέ ο λισιάσνε
ντιέλτε εδέ τ’ τιέριτε νιέριες?
Γκα αγιό, κλιτσίνε πλιάκενε Σιατάφιλι ντ’ καστόρε, χάπνε νιέ βίρε γκα κεραμίδετε,
εδέ ι στιίνε ούγιε, με νιέ γκουβά,
νιέρα σα τσ’ ου ντιλίε, με πόνε, με θίρμε ντίτε ε νάτε,
εδέ φούντιτ βέτιμε, αγιό εδέ ινιζότε, με σσίτε χάπετε γκα φρίκα,
ψε νουκου ουγγίντ ντονί τ’ για μπίουν όρενε τσ’ ίκεν.
Notes on this poem
Arvanitika is a language that was once widely spoken in central Greece (particularly near Thebes and Athens), in the Peloponnese, and on Aegean islands such as Euboea, Salamis, and Hydra. The UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger (http://www.unesco.org/culture/languages-atlas/index.php) identifies Arvanitika as severely endangered, a language now ‘spoken only by grandparents and older generations; while the parent generation may still understand the language, they typically do not speak it to their children’.
Though Arvanitika has a long and colourful history, not much has ever been written in it. It is an oral language without a standardized writing system. Not much has been published: there is a New Testament dating from 1827, and there are a few tales, some songs, and some folk poetry, which is always in strict metre and rhyme, and limited to patriotic and bucolic themes.
Yorgos Soukoulis, born in 1932 in the Corinthian mountain village of Agios Yiannis, is the first Arvanitika writer to break the traditional mould and venture into creative new directions. After an early life as a shepherd, he joined the Greek Air Force, retiring in the 1980s with the rank of Air Marshal. He began writing at the age of 70 – exclusively in Arvanitika – and is currently working on his memoirs, the first book to be entirely written in Arvanitika.