by Agon Dragaj
Summary
The song tells of Salim Bekiaris, who travels toward Armyros and is warned that armed klephts are ahead. Unafraid of either the klephts or the Turks, he takes refuge in an old church, where he withstands a siege lasting twelve days and nights. Artillery is brought from Egripos and Velestino to destroy his position, but Salim remains defiant, boasting of his reputation and claiming that powerful figures, including the king and vizier, know him.
The yellow text in the image is an editorial/modern description, not part of the original poem. It characterizes the song as depicting tensions involving Muslim and Christian Albanians and Ottoman Turks, with the phrase “all against all.”
Dragaj writes:
“A characteristic depiction of Muslim and Christian Arvanites. (Albanians) A description of the circumstances of those periods that could be summed up as: ‘all against all.’ In this particular song, the Muslim Arvanites are enemies both of their Christian compatriots and of the Turks themselves.
We are talking about Ali Fermaku, a Muslim Albanian from Epirus, who fought both Orthodox Albanians and the Ottomans. Quite an ironic and paradoxical situation in the political and religious context of the 19th century. One can observe that the nationalist construction of modern Greece is based on many myths intended to unify a newly formed nation”.
Cited:
“Salim Bekiaris”. Popular Songs / Folk Songs of Modern Greece (Τραγούδια Ρωμαίικα — Popularia Carmina Graeciae Recentioris), collected/edited by Arnold Passow.
LXXVI a. — SALIM BEKIARIS
No. 78
Three little partridges are sitting upon the rocky ridge,
Their claws are red and their wings are marked.
They lament and say, they lament and say:
“Salim Bekiaris has set out to go to Armyros.”
On the road where he was going, along the path he followed,
He encountered an old man, who stopped and asked him:
“Where are you going, Ali Bouloumpashi, poor Ali Farmaki?
Ahead of you are the klephts, Sagis and Gioltasis.”
“I am not afraid of klephts, nor do I fear the Turks.”
He was overcome with sorrow and great distress,
And went and shut himself up in an old little church.
For twelve days they fought, twelve days and nights.
They brought artillery from Egripos, artillery from Velestino,
To fire upon and destroy this old little church.
And he, meanwhile, smoked, drank, and twisted his moustache:
“I am not afraid of Turks, nor do I fear [the [unclear]].
Salim Bekiaris is renowned; they know me,
The king knows me, the vizier knows me,
Trikorfa knows me, and all Salonica.”
Source
Arnold Passow, ed., Tragoudia Romaika: Popularia Carmina Graeciae Recentioris (Lipsiae: B. G. Teubner, 1860), no. 78, “Salim Bekiaris.”
