Το τανγκό της Νεφέλης [To tangó tis Nefélis] [English translation]

Τhe golden kerchief

Covering the hair of Nefeli1

Made her stand out from the vineyard crowd.

Two adolescent angels flew down

And they stole it from her.

The two teen dieties

Had been dreaming and wanting Nefeli,

To feed her pomegranate and honey2,

Not to renew her, but to make her lose her virginity3

They fooled ‘round with her.

Hyacinths and lilies,

They stole those fine odors, wore false aromas.

As the two bawdy godlings shot their arrows,

They mocked her with laughter.

But God taking mercy,

Grants her the elixir of purity4,

Making her a cloud, and so she scatters,

Tricking her tormenters.

1. Νεφέλη in ancient Greek means "cloud." There's a myth concerning Νεφέλη, a cloud nymph whom Zeus made into the likeness of his wife Hera in order to test the integrity of Ixion, who failed. This song has obvious resonances with the myth, but here Nefeli is presented as a mortal girl, who becomes the sport of a couple of Cupids. Zeus/Διας saves her in the end and turns he into a cloud/σύννεφο. Note that modern Greek for cloud, σύννεφος has at its root νεφος, which harks back to Νεφέλη and the myth about her. In the lyric itself, I left Νεφέλη as a proper name, but in the title, I replaced Νεφέλη with "Cloud." 2. My translation of this whole line and the next one is informed both by the myth of Nefeli and by the significance in the ancient world of honey and pomegranate. In ancient times, women resorted to honey as a method of contraception. Pomegranate seeds play a key role in the well known myth of Persephone, a girl who gets kidnapped by the God of the underworld. Her mother, Demeter, forces Zeus to free her, but because the girl ate 6 pomegranate seeds while in Hades, she must remain in Hell for 6 months of every year. During those months, the earth loses its fertility. Pomegranate seeds are, thus, linked in myth and ritual to fertility and rebirth.3. The Greek version is rather coy here about what is at stake for Νεφέλη here. The horny Cupids don't want her to remember, but to forget τι θέλει/(literally) "what she wants." It did not seem to me too big a stretch to be less coy and say that what her suitors want her to forget/abandon is her virginity.4. νερό της εφηβείας literally translates as "water of adolescence." I considered "fountain of youth." Instead, I used poetic license and chose "purity," which rhymes with "virginity" in an earlier stanza and preserves a core concept in this modern lyrical retelling of the myth of Νεφέλη.

• Artist:Haris Alexiou
• Album:Γυρίζοντας τον κόσμο (1997)