Romany Songs and Music
Gypsy Caravan
I whiled away all the years of my youth
Tending my fields searching for the truth
Gazing past horizons to the west
Hoping I’d see them before my death.
Then one day they rumbled by
A gypsy caravan the color of the sky
Water sparkled as the wheels turned round
Across the river into the town.
Chorus:
There’s a gypsy caravan,
Rolling across the land,
They got singers and a dancing girl
That can make you dream about the wide wide world.
And their captain was a handsome man
He had a sword and what looked like a plan
But there was something wrong in his eyes
Bloodshot and bleary from too many nights
So we stayed up late in that inn
Drinking over our secret sins
Each one wanting what the other one had
We both said the “You’re the lucky man.”
Chorus:
There’s a gypsy caravan,
Rolling across the land,
They got singers and a dancing girl
That can make you dream about the wide wide world.
Late the morning we agreed to trade
Each other’s lives for a later date
Twenty years later again we’d meet
And see if we’d both really found our dreams
So I finally got to see the world
And found for myself a blue eyed girl
We raised three kids in the back of that tent
Rolling through the night they were heaven sent
Chorus:
There’s a gypsy caravan,
Rolling across the land,
They got singers and a dancing girl
That can make you dream about the wide wide world.
Twenty years later again I returned
Only to find out what the we both had learned
He had three kids and a wife of his own
And those green fields had turned into his home
We agreed to go our separate ways
And I’ll not see him til my dying day
The man who gave my dreams to me
Where I found a love for eternity
Chorus:
There’s a gypsy caravan,
Rolling across the land,
They got singers and a dancing girl
That can make you dream about the wide wide world.
Author unknown
The Moon Smiles
This is a poem that talks about how both life and death are a mixture of sadness and joy.
Moonlight
O chonut asal amen
…Teochonut korhavola
teamen dikhasa
sad
kon vakarela
Kaj e phake erovimase
thaj e asamase
ka arakhadon
English Translation
The moon smiles
down on us
around the fire
we weep
wahh!
Our crying flies up
among the moonbeams floating down
heaven smells our tears
we sense the beams
If the moon is blinded we can see
who is speaking…
With one wing of tears
and one laughter
we take off to meet him.
-Rajko Durich
A Gypsy Love Song
Tropical night, Malaria moon
Dying stars of the silver screen
She danced that famous Gypsy dance
With a hole in her tambourine
I was young enough and dumb enough
I swallowed down my Mickey Finn
She’d hijacked a few hearts all right
I went into a tailspin
Don’t sing me, don’t sing me, don’t sing me
No more gypsy love songs
Don’t sing me, don’t sing me, don’t sing me
No more gypsy love songs
Don’t stir it up again
I put my arm around her waist
Says she, young man, you’re getting warm
The room was going somewhere without me
And she laughed as she read my palm
Stillborn love, passionate dreams, pitiful greed
And the silver tongues of the tinker girls,
Who throw their book of life at you
But don’t know how to read
Don’t sing me, don’t sing me, don’t sing me
No more gypsy love songs
Don’t sing me, don’t sing me, don’t sing me
No more gypsy love songs
Don’t stir it up again
She was third generation Transylvanian
I was the seventh son of a seventh son
I begged the band don’t play that tune
Please don’t beguine the begun
When I awoke, she’d cut and run
She stole my blueprints and my change
Just a horseshoe and a note on the bed
And all it said was–strange
Don’t sing me, don’t sing me, don’t sing me
No more gypsy love songs
Don’t sing me, don’t sing me, don’t sing me
No more gypsy love songs
Don’t stir it up again
~I found this little song in one of my files,
the music wasn’t with it and I don’t know the author.
Ederlezi
Ederlezi is a popular traditional folk song of the Romani minority in the Balkans (former Yugoslavia). Goran Bregovic’s version was used for the movie, Time of the Gypsies, actually made the song famous.
The song got its name after Ederlezi (otherwise known as Đurđevdan (Ђурђевдан) in Serbian, sometimes transcribed as Djurdjevdan).
Ederlezi is the Gypsy name for the Bulgarian and Serbian Feast of Saint George. It’s celebrated on the 6th May, a holiday signaling the beginning of spring, occurring approximately 40 days after the spring equinox. This Spring festival is especially celebrated by Roma people around the former Yugoslavia (and elsewhere around the world), regardless of religious affiliation.
I love this version, it’s sung by Preslava Peicheva – finalist in Music Idol Bulgaria.
Lyrics in Romani:
Sa me amala oro khelena
Oro khelena, dive kerena
Sa o Roma daje
Sa o Roma babo babo
Sa o Roma o daje
Sa o Roma babo babo
Ederlezi, Ederlezi
Sa o Roma daje
Sa o Roma babo, e bakren chinen
A me, chorro, dural beshava
Romano dive, amaro dive
Amaro dive, Ederlezi
E devado babo, amenge bakro
Sa o Roma babo, e bakren chinen
Sa o Roma babo babo
Sa o Roma o daje
Sa o Roma babo babo
Ederlezi, Ederlezi
Sa o Roma daje
English Translation:
All my friends are dancing the oro
Dancing the oro, celebrating the day
All the Roma, mommy
All the Roma, dad, dad
All the Roma, oh mommy
All the Roma, dad, dad
Ederlezi, Ederlezi
All the Roma, mommy
All the Roma, dad, slaughter lambs
But me, poor, I am sitting apart
A Romany day, our day
Our day, Ederlezi
They give, Dad, a lamb for us
All the Roma, dad, slaughter lambs
All the Roma, dad, dad
All the Roma, oh mommy
All the Roma, dad, dad
Ederlezi, Ederlezi
All the Roma, mommy
The former Yugoslav rock band Bijelo Dugme released a cover version of this song in Serbo-Croatian using the same melody, but with very different lyrics. Under the title “Đurđevdan je a ja nisam s onom koju volim” which is featured on their album Ćiribiribela from 1988.
Bijelo Dugme’s Lyrics:
Proljeće na moje rame slijeće
Đurđevak zeleni
Đurđevak zeleni
Svima osim meni
Drugovi odoše a ja osta
Nema zvijezde danice
Nema zvijezde danice
Moje saputnice
Ej kome sada moja draga
Na đurđevak miriše
Na đurđevak miriše
Meni nikad više
Evo zore evo zore
Bogu da se pomolim
Evo zore evo zore
Ej đurđevdan je
A ja nisam s onom koju volim
Njeno ime neka se spominje
Svakog drugog dana
Svakog drugog dana
Osim đurđevdana
English Translation:
Spring is landing on my shoulder
Lily of the valley is sprouting
Lily of the valley is sprouting
For everyone, except for me
The friends are gone, but I’ve stayed
There is no Morning Star
There is no Morning Star
My fellow-traveler
Hey, to whom does my darling now
Smells of the lily of the valley
Smells of the lily of the valley
To me never again
Here comes the sunrise,
here comes the sunrise
So I can pray to God
Here comes the sunrise,
here comes the sunrise
Hey it’s St George’s day
And I am not with the one I love
Let her name be mentioned
On every other day
On every other day
Except on St George’s day.
And here is a version with Greek lyrics, titled “Tou Ai Giorgi” (“Saint George’s”, Greek: “Του Αη Γιώργη”), was also recorded by Bregović together with Greek singer Alkistis Protopsalti in 1991. The Greek lyrics are credited to Lina Nikolakopoulou.
Lyrics in Greek:
Απ’ τους ώμους να, η Άνοιξη περνά,
γύρω φτερουγίζει,
ξεχνάει εμένα.
Μέρα της χαράς ποια ζωή φοράς;
Δρόμο δρόμο παίρνεις
χωρίς εμένα.
Του ουρανού πουλιά πάρτε με αγκαλιά
το βουνό γεμίζει κεριά αναμμένα
Nα κι η Πούλια ξημερώνει το Θεό παρακαλώ
μα το φως που δυναμώνει
δε μου φέρνει
δε μου φέρνει
‘κείνον που αγαπώ.
Το όνομα του ανθός, ευωδιάς βυθός,
πείτε στα κορίτσια να μην το λένε
μέρα σαν κι αυτή στ’ Άη Γιωργιού τ’ αφτί,
που όλα τα τραγούδια για αγάπη κλαίνε.
English Translation:
Look over the shoulders, spring passes,
flutters all around,
it forgets me
Day of joy, which life do you carry?
Υou take the road
without me.
Birds of sky, take me in your embrace
the mountain fills with lit candles
There it is the morning star, it’s breaking, I beg God
but the light which becomes stronger
it doesn’t bring me
it doesn’t bring me
the man that I love.
His name (is) flower, depth of perfume
tell to the girls not to say that
On the day like this one, at Saint George’s ear
where all the songs weep for love.
Source: Wikipedia