O Menousis

*

 How I like it since decades!

About this song (from here):

[Menousis, Mpirmpilis and Mehmet-aga, went to the wine-seller's to eat and drink. While they were eating, while they were drinking, While they were rejoicing, somebody started talking about beautiful women.]

- "What a beautiful wife you have, Mehmet-aga!" *

- "Where have you seen her? How do you know her and speak about her?"

- "I met her yesterday by the well while she was drawing water, and I asked her for a little kiss and she gave it to me" [see note below]

[Menousis, drunk, went to his house and killed her. Next morning, sober, he was lamenting her:]

- "Get up, my duck; get up, my goose, get up and change your clothes, so that the youths will see you and rejoice!"

*[There is a mistake here, because the song is about Menousis and his wife; it should be Menousi-aga, the "aga" simply a polite addition and not the actual title of Aga]

[NOTE: Vangelis has taken liberties here; the words should be: "I met her yesterday by the well while she was drawing water, and I asked her for water and she gave me, and I gave her my handkerchief and she washed it, and I asked her for a little kiss and she gave it to me", and later, it should be "so that the youths will see you and burn [presumably from desire], and I will see you and rejoice" and the kissing part is doubtful; because according to the standards of the time he would have been quite justified in killing her if she had kissed another guy and he bragged about it, and of course he wouldn't want other young men to enjoy her beauty! (I read recently that in folk poetry, giving a handkerchief and having it washed was a euphemism for having sex). The song must refer to a real incident, and the existence of the Turkish Mehmet-aga means it was before 1820]

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