A mantinada (in plural: mantinades) is Cretan rhyming couplet, typically improvised during dance music. Rhymed Cretan poetry of the Renaissance, especially verse epic Erotokritos, are reminiscent of the mantinada, and couplets from Erotokritos have become used as mantinades. Mantinades have either love or satire as their topics. They are invariably composed in dekapentasyllabos verse and are often antiphonal, i.e. a verse elicits a response and this leads to another response and so on.
The word is derived from Venetian: matinada, "morning song".
Most Cretan teenagers love traditional Cretan music and use mantinades to express love. You can find mantinades written on their books, inscribed in their desks or written with markers on the walls.
One of my students (17 years old) recently attached a mantinada on my facebook wall. I dedicate it to all of you, students from Europe:
ΚΟΜΜΑΤΙΑ ΝΑ ΤΗΝ ΚΑΝΟΥΝΕ ΤΗΝ ΕΔΙΚΗ ΜΟΥ ΑΓΑΠΗ...
ΘΑ ΖΕΙ ΝΑ ΣΕ ΞΑΝΑΓΑΠΑ ΤΟ ΚΑΘΕ ΤΗΣ ΚΟΜΜΑΤΙ...!!!!!!!!!!!!
It sounds like
Komatia na tin kanune tin ediki mu agapi (g sounds as y in yes)
Tha zi na se ksanagapa to kathe tis Komati (th sounds as in think)
And it means
Even if my love would be broken into pieces
every piece of it will live, to love you again
If you follow this link, you can listen to a cretan song with mantinades as lyrics, performed by a well known young artist. You can see how traditional cretan music is performed nowadays and even watch a cretan dance. That’s what happens in cretan weddings’ celebrations!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment