The Paradise of Lemon Trees

There are more love songs than anything else. If songs could make you do something we'd all love one another.
Frank Zappa

Today's post features a dance created from the beautiful Greek song Tou Paradiso Lemonia. One of the dancers from the Sunday night group in Wethersfield introduced it last year.  It's a very catchy melody in 7/8 rhythm (pineapple-apple-apple).

The leader in the video is Murray Spiegel; the group is the Morristown Folk Dancers from New Jersey.



Below are the lyrics in English translation provided by Danai Kyriakou, via YouTube. It's a tragic song about lost love; it probably would make more sense in the original language; something always gets lost in translation.

The singer's name is Pantelis Thalassinos. You can find his songs on YouTube.

This was the best translation I could find (Google Translate didn't work well).

Lemon tree of paradise
a twig of oblivion
Keep for me too
keep for me too
For I have two years in my throat a tired sigh
And lips locked up, and lips locked up
My body filled with myrrh and fragrances
that wake the hearts my good lemon
That wake the hearts my good lemon that stop the pain
Send me your white blossom with its aromas before I fall and wither in other bodies
Before I fall and wither in other bodies before I enter into the third year
Lemon tree of paradise hide the clothes of the murderer
Into the closet of bitterness Into the closet of bitterness
the bloody waters so to get again my wings
That love has broken that love has broken
My body filled with myrrh and fragrances that wake the hearts my good lemon
That wake the hearts my good lemon that stop the pain
Send me your white blossom with its aromas before I fall and wither in other bodies
Before I fall and wither in other bodies
before I enter into the third year before I enter into the third year

If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Sometimes Lost in Translation: Bulgarian Proverbs

Fun and Easy Folk Dances From Greece

Tragic love songs are definitely multicultural. This post features several from Bulgaria: Beli Dunav, Part Two: Danube Blues

The Alien Diaries will be taking a break for about two weeks.  There are over 350 posts, you can enjoy them during your summer vacation!


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.