Forty stalwart young men
Vying on the shore
Took the dice and rolled them
For little Rallou’s heart.

Throughout the East and West
In all corners of the world
They’re asking who will win
The beautiful young girl.

The summer passes quickly
Time goes marching on
Yet no one knows for certain
Who’ll be the lucky one.

Forty stalwart young men
Vying on the shore
Took the dice and rolled them
For little Rallou’s heart.

Forty stalwart young men
Lions in the fight
Took the dice and rolled them
On a crazy night.

The moon looks on in envy
And from the mountains calls
The dark and frightful horseman
Who governs one and all.

And Charon like a snake
Drags down the lovely maid
On a path of no return
To a dark and sunless cave.

Forty stalwart young men
Vying on the shore
Rolled the dice and lost 
Little Rallou’s heart.

 

 

 

Rick Newton, Kent State University, United States

Translator’s notes:

This 1971 song about a beautiful but elusive maiden (ομορφονιά) displays similarities with Gatsos’ 1976 song, “Athanasia (Immortality).” In “Athanasia” the maiden Immortality is aloof and coldly indifferent to all pursuers. The unattainability of “Little Rallou,” by contrast, is due to the jealousy of the moon aroused by the ardor of the young girl’s pursuers.

Σταύρος Καρτσωνάκης, Νίκος Γκάτσος. Δώστε μου μια ταυτότητα να θυμηθώ ποιος είμαι: Ποίηση και στιχουργική 1931–1991 (Μετρονόμος, Αθήνα 2022) 176–177 and 401, points out the song’s rootedness in the modern Greek folk tradition, especially its reference to the “fatal number” (μοιραίος αριθμός) of forty brave young men (σαράντα παλληκάρια ) who undertake a daring but doomed act of valor. He also suggests that the name Rallou may be inspired by prose author Yannis Psycharis (1854–1929). Agathi Dimitrouka has suggested that the name may refer to the well-known choreographer and teacher of modern dance, Rallou Manou (1915–1968), with whom Gatsos associated. Both Gatsos and Manou collaborated with composers Manos Hadjidakis and Mikis Theodorakis.

In modern Greek folk tradition, Charon (Χάρων) – classical mythology’s ferryman of the River Styx – is the personification of death itself, often depicted as “the black horseman” (ο μαύρος καβαλάρης) and named both Χάροντας and Χάρος. Gatsos’ detail of death “like a snake dragging down the lovely maid” also calls to mind the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. In Ovid, Metamorphoses 10.1–39, the fresh bride Eurydice is bitten in the ankle by a snake while she is walking with naiads (cf. Apollodorus, Library I.iii.2), whereupon the grief-stricken Orpheus descends to the underworld to placate Persephone and Pluto, whom Ovid describes as “the lord who owns the joyless kingdom of shades” (inamoenaque regna tenentem / umbrarum dominum).