Song that got skipped over somehow - A13b

[The_Walrus]

Μανώλης Χασικλής A13b

Δεν τό ’λπιζα, Μανώλη, κορόιδο να πιαστείς
και το λουλά να σπάσεις, στη φυλακή να μπεις. x2
Αν είσαι φίνος μάγκας, πού ’ν’ τα μπεγλέρια σου;
Αν είσαι και σερέτης, πού ’ν’ τα μαχαίρια σου; x2
Ώπα! Κρίμα σε σένα, Μανωλάκη, Κρίμα στο λουλά σου!
Ω!

Εγώ ’μαι φίνος μάγκας και φίνος χασικλής
καί σαν θα τη φουμάρω, να ξεμολογηθείς. x2
’Ελα, βρε Μανωλάκη, να τα λιμάρουμε,
να στρώσουμε κουβέρτα, να τους τα πάρουμε. x2

Manolis the Hash Smoker A13b

...

[krokos]

Hi I'm the french guy who wrote to you a few months ago about "arguile
mou"
This song is already translated on your site I think...(or there's a
misunderstanding?)

I'm waiting for the other song...

[mastouras]

Manolis the Hash Smoker A13b

I never wished it, (my) Manoli, for you to get caught out and
"ridiculed"
And to break your stem, and into jail to go
If you're a fine magka, where are your begleria
And if your also a fighter, where are your knives ?

Opa, shame for you Manoli, shame for your loula

I'm a fine magka, and fine hashish-kils ? (hat do we call hasikli in
English, pothead is derogatory to a point, and not what magkes meant
exactly)
And I smoke, magka, you'll confess
Come on vre Manolaki, let's lime them down,
Lay out a blanket, and take them

(I remember when we did this, and I really ended up loving this song,
seen a number of version s of it, and the passion with which it can
be sung I really liked)

The last part of the 2nd verse (there are more to the song from
memory) relates to "liming" the dice that would be used in street
games for money, so that they would be "loaded" and fall to certain
number(s)... thus the "let's lay out a blanket & take them (I called it
take them, literally it's take it form the Greek translation, but
grammar & ways of speaking are different between languages)

The "my Manoli" in Greek is like when in English someone say "oh my
boy".. In Greek this is more common & used with first names etc as
aswell, where as in English it is not really.

[krokos]

Oups I didn't notice the end was different...

[The_Walrus]

Ah, you have answered your own question. The book has two versions of
the song, and I forgot to put this one up for translation. This is
probably why Mastouras says he thinks there is more to the song.

The first one, already translated, was sung by Evangelos Sofroniou,
this one is the way Giorgos Vidalis sang it. Confusing, no?

[The_Walrus]

On Feb 8, 2:49 am, mastouras <johnc...@telstra.com> wrote:

> I'm a fine magka, and fine hashish-kils ? (hat do we call hasikli in
> English, pothead is derogatory to a point, and not what magkes meant
> exactly)

I tend to just put "pot smokers" or "hash smokers", which are fairly
neutral, I think. It was either that or put an entry for χασικλης on
the words page.

> Come on vre Manolaki, let's lime them down,
> Lay out a blanket, and take them

I suspect this is a reference to the way of catching birds, using
lime, "them" being the marks who are going to get taken to the
cleaners. The other version of the song has the same word translated
as filing the dice. Oh dear...

[mastouras]

I'm abit confused as to what you mean by the "catching birds"
reference, can you explain further ? I remebered the previous
translation reffering to the liming of dice fro street money games in
which they would "ripoff" customers was offered up by someone (my
memory is shocking) who helped with the translation

...smokers makes such obvious sense I don't know how I missed it !

You can edit translations as we improve them right ?

On Feb 8, 9:10 pm, The_Walrus <christopher.blackm...@btinternet.com>
wrote:

[The_Walrus]

Well, the bit about catching the birds turns out to have been Walrus
nonsense from the very first.

a/ It actually says filing them down, from the verb λιμάρω and means
they are going to file the dice down and cheat some guys, playing dice
on a blanket.

b/ Your Walrus hallucinated a completely different meaning, using the
word λίμα, which is a file and somehow thinking it meant lime,
possibly because a computer suggested it. But a/ is right, and the
fanciful bit about bird-lime is not. For those who don't know, it used
to be that birds were caught by liming tree branches so their feet got
stuck to it. This is of course barbarous, but is probably still done
in Italy and large parts of the surrounding planet. It's illegal in
the UK, so is probably only done by the guys who own pit-bulls.

[mastouras]

Yia sou Chris

Thanks for that, I didn;t know any of that... I only thought λιμάρω
meant to lime something, and upon whomever explained (probably
Azythos? he helped a bit with some sticky translations) explained it
was to do with filing the dice, that it was a slang/colloquial
term...

hallucinated LOL



On Feb 9, 8:28 pm, The_Walrus <christopher.blackm...@btinternet.com>
wrote:

[The_Walrus]

I was helped very much on this one by Kostas Ladopoulos, who was one
of the speakers on Hydra last year. He's written a dictionary of
Rebetiko, which will be published in Greek, and English too if he can
find a good enough translator - not me obviously!

[Nikos A. Politis]

My contribution, based on Mastouras' translation.

Loulas is the fire bowl of the narghile, not the pipe.

Can begleria be translated with beads? (dictionaries translate as
worry beads).

Seretis: synonym for mangas.

Could "... and a fine hash smoker" stand for "finos hashiklis"?

καί σαν θα τη φουμάρω, να ξεμολογηθείς:
and should I come up having smoked, you 'd better confess (since this
is what a moribund normally normally does, shortly before). It was a
good preparation for manges to smoke before starting a quarell.

... let's file the dice down,
lay out a blanket and collect their money


On Feb 9, 5:10 pm, The_Walrus <christopher.blackm...@btinternet.com>
wrote:

[The_Walrus]

Thank you Niko! I'll put up a summary of this one as soon as I can,
and move swiftly on to something much further on in the book. I'm
taking my son to a hockey tournament (he likes to play hockey) in the
morning, so it may be a few hours.

[mastouras]

yeah thanks niko, I knew what a loula was too, but.........

also explained the last verse well

I still don't like the term worry beads, although that is the common
translation or name for komboloia and I guess begleria too.. I keep
getting asked "what do you hae to worry about"

On Feb 10, 10:40 am, The_Walrus <christopher.blackm...@btinternet.com>
wrote:

[The_Walrus]

I have fixed the page this goes on, so will post another song soon.

http://www.btinternet.com/~christopher.blackmore/rebetiko/hasiklidika/SongsA_11_20.html#song13