Page 342 - Beholding Liberty!

II.8.C.20
Claude Fauriel
Chants populaires de la Grèce moderne, vol. 2 Paris: Firmin Didot/Dondey-Dupré, 1825
Library of the Hellenic Parliament
THE DEMOTIC SONG, the kind par excel- lence intertwined with the soul of the people, of highly expressive value, accompanied the daily life of the Greeks, offering at the same time its most accurate depiction. Already in the end of the 18th cent., immersed in the spirit of romanticism, the Eu- ropean travellers are moved by the living oral tra- dition of the Greek people and begin to hoard folk material (songs, traditions, customs, fairy tales et al.). The present edition of C. Fauriel is the first print-
II.8.C.21
W. Müller (translator)
Romaic songs / Neugriechische Volkslieder, vol. 1
Leipzig: Leopold Voss, 1825 Library of the Hellenic Parliament
THE IMPACT of C. Fauriel’s collection Chants populaires de la Grèce Moderne of 1824 was so great that it proved to be regulatory as prototype for sim- ilar efforts in translation, «introducing» to the Euro- pean public the Greek demotic songs.
The song «Last farewell of the kleftis» expresses
ed collection, based on information given by Greeks of Paris and Trieste, enriched with foreword, com- ments and translation in French.
«The death of Diakos» is one of the most popular demotic songs, which is encountered in many ver- sions, as the hero’s sacrifice in April 1821 at the bridge of Alamana moved deeply the folk Muse: «Left was Diakos in the fire with eighteen brave men, / Three hours he was fighting against eighteen thousands».
in a doric manner the feelings of the kleftes when parting with their kin, entering the full of dangers life on the mountains: «If the friends ask anything about me/ don’t say that I was lost, that the poor guy died, / Only say that I got married in a faraway foreign land».
342 BEHOLDING LIBERTY!