User:Cigor/Folklore

Here and there one can find some breathtaking jewels among Macedonian folk songs.

Zajdi Zajdi Jasno Sonce (Bright Setting Sun)

This old song is a masterpiece. It is about lost youth compared to nature, or changing seasons. As such it has very simmilar mission as the poetry of East Asia.

Here is the sound, there are many versions, but I like this one: [1]

Translation:

I

Set down, set down clear sun,

Disappear into the dark

And you clear moonlight too

Run away, drown yourself

II

Sorrow forest, sorrow my sister,

Let us sorrow together

You for your leaves, forest

Me for my youth.

III

Your leaves, forest - my sister,

Are going to return

My youth, forest - my sister,

Is not coming back.

In 1988, the darkwave band Mizar made cover of this folk tune that turned to be smashing hit in former Yugoslavia, ironicly more in Slovenia and Croatia than Macedonia. Here is their version: [2]

Ajde slusaj kales bre Andjo (Listen to me, Andjo)

Perhaps the most well-known case connecting the attempted abduction and Islamicisation of a Macedonian Christian girl during the Ottoman Empire rule was that of Kalesh Anga, in the Mariovo district of the Bitola region. Kalesh Anga chose death before Islamicisation, throwing herself off a cliff top whilst fleeing from her would-be Turkish abductors. The large cliff top rock from where Kalesh Anga threw herself is known as Momin Kamen (‘young girl’s rock’) and is visible from the road leading up to Makovo from the Bitola district.

The text of the song is structured as a dialog between Anga and Turkish aristocrat. The Turk is listing all benefits should she accept to be one of his wife, but the girl swiftly refuses him.

This version of the song: [3]

Aber dojde donke (Message have arrived, Donke)

The text of this song is trivial, so I am not going to bother. However this song is pure tranquility. Here is the sound: [4]