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Zagori
Nicholas Ninos, the folk clarinettist,
Played the Zagorissian dances
Like nobody else before or since,
With Manousis, Mitsos and Bekaris
On tambourine, violin and lute.
People came from miles around,
Crossed rivers, gorges, bridges, mountains
By mule, by donkey; climbed kalderimia.
The villages with panigyria
Opened their doors and opened their hearts.
In the days before the electric lamp,
The amplifier, the microphone,
Before the road, the bus, the car,
In the villages of high Zagori,
From Monodendri, from Dilofo,
From Asprangelos, Tsepelovo,
They danced till late to the taximia,
Long before they were recorded.
9.9.1997. With thanks to Alexios Vaisdekis (retired cheese-producer, aged 79, from Vitsa and pre-Nasser Egypt).
Jim Potts
Jim Potts
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