Parios (Nisiotika) - Sala Sala

Hello all...

was wondering if I could get the lyrics and possible translation to this beautiful song by Yiannis Parios off his Ta Nisiotika (1982) album.

I've been trying to decipher most of these island songs and their meanings. Any help is greatly appreciated!

Yiasas

You got me here, Petey.
There's a line in the lyrics that doesn't make any sense to me, cause I have no idea what "ta tzitzi" means. :/

Σάλα σάλα, μες στη σάλα τα μιλήσαμε
Να με πάρεις, να σε πάρω συμφωνήσαμε
Να με πάρεις, να σε πάρω συμφωνήσαμε
Σάλα σάλα, μες στη σάλα τα μιλήσαμε

Σάλα, Μαρουσώ μου, σάλα τα τζίτζι μες στο μαγερειό
Άσ' τα ψάρια να καούνε κι έβγα να σε δω
Άσ' τα ψάρια να καούνε κι έβγα να σε δω
Σάλα, Μαρουσώ μου, σάλα τα τζίτζι μες στο μαγερειό

Πότε μαύρα, πότε άσπρα, πότε κόκκινα
Την καρδιά μου να ζητούσες, θα σ' την έδινα
Την καρδιά μου να ζητούσες, θα σ' την έδινα
Πότε μαύρα, πότε άσπρα, πότε κόκκινα

________

"Sala" usually means "hall, living room" (comes from Italian).
In the first stanza it makes sense, but... If we translated it that way in the second one, it wouldn't.
In Turkish "salla" means "to brandish", "to shake" (there's also a Turkish version of the song called "Sallasana", quite a popular one).
There's a Greek verb "σαλεύω", that means approximately the same ("to move", "to shake", "to shuffle", "to stir"). We could assume the Turkish word is related to that ancient verb. However, that's just a wild guess, since I don't know what the etymology of the Turkish "salla" is.
Maybe the song comes from Istanbul or Izmir.

Now what "ta tzitzi" means, I do not know.


(Sala sala) in the living room we talked it out
You will marry me (lit. "take me"), I will marry you, we agreed to it

Sala, my Marouso, (sala ta tzitzi?) inside the cooking room
Let the fish burn and come out, so I can see you

Sometimes black, sometimes white, sometimes red
Should you ask for my heart, I would give it to you

_________

Any other suggestions, guys? Maraki mou, do you have any idea what "ta tzitzi" means?

Hi together,
on youtube.com I found several versions of this song, sung by a woman, starting in greek ending in turkish. MAybe it makes sense to listen to such version to become more clear about the sense.
I have just looked up in my greek dictionary for tsitsi, but I couldn´t find it. Maybe it´s also a dialect-word spoken in a certain region.

COuld it be that they maybe play with the word SALA in his double meaning?

I am very curious about other answers;

Greetings from rainy Germany
Tahira

Errr.. Could it actually be "τζιτζί" in the meaning of "τέλεια"? It comes from Turkish...

Not that it sheds any light on the situation. lol


P.S. Tahira, it's actually "tzitzi" (pronounced "dzidzi").
"Tsitsi" in Bulgarian is not a very decorous, even vulgar word for "breasts".
Having in mind that "salla" means "to shake"... Now that's no good. lol

When it comes to paradosiaka and dimotika songs lyrics, dictionaries are not much of a help.

The version you've found is sung by Candan Erçetin.

Bir dalda iki kiraz biri al biri beyaz
Eğer beni seversen mektubunu sıkça yaz

Sallasana sallasana mendilini
Akşam oldu göndersene sevdiğimi

Bir dalda iki ceviz aramız derya deniz
Sen orada ben burada ne bet kaldı ne beniz

***

Two cherries on a branch, one red, one white
If you loved me, I'll wait for your letter as often as you may write

Wave, wave your handkerchief
Day is done, send me my beloved, I'm in grief

Two chestnuts on a branch, between us an immeasurable distance twice over
With you there and me here, I'm fading like a flower

wow...such a complex song.

Thanks for all the hard work in translating it. The reason I requested this song before many others is because I had no clue what sala or tzitzi meant and it immediately lept to the forefront of my interest.

I know its common for artists to do both Greek and sometimes Turkish, but I wasn't expecting it on Ta Nisiotika.

We're city people, ti na kanoume.

Hi Panselinos,
i was writing it wrong, but I was looking in my dictionary for a greek tzitzi. And you know what?... "Zitze" in german are the "breast" of a cow...
And in my big big brain with many "half" languages I was also thing in the first moment of "Shake your breast".... I almost dear to say..... Sorry.

I know that dictionaries don´t help much when regional or dialect words are used. I am living in south germany where they also speak a strong dialect and sometimes people use words for certain things which are not used in the official/dictionary german.

The word Sala I know from the song Rakkas by sezen aksu; and there Sala definetelly means kind of SHAKE.

Could it be that tzitzi is a word from a gypsy dialect?

Regards, Tahira

Hi friends. "Salla" means " "to shake" in turkish (while dancing). I didn't listen the song you're talking about, so I don't know the melody. As tahira said, sezen aksu had sung "Rakkas" in which the word "salla" was mentioned. If you tell me the link on youtube, I can help you maybe.

Hi Seda, this is for example one link for the turkish/greek song Sallasana. Its not the version petey asked for, but the same song and the same lyrics

the lady stars singing greek.
YouTube - C.Erçetin'den Yunanca Şarkı,Sallasana Mendilini ve Düet

Bye-bye Tahira

Hi everybody,
another suggestion: what about if tzitzi is an slang word for food ?

So kind of: Shake, my dear marousa, shake the food in the kitchen,
let the fish burn and come down..... and so on

So may be the singer wants to say: leave all up to itself, i just want to come down to me to care about me (and not the food).

????

Tahira

I think panselino's translation of sala meaning 'the hallway' makes a lot more sense than 'shake' because Parios sings "mes ti sala" meaning, "in the hallway".

My jist is a guy and a girl in the hallway, they talked
He took her, she took him.

Even more evidence is the fact that the next stanza is "mes to magiero"
or "in the kitchen" as a followup to "in the hallway".


Just thoughts...although, I'd love to know what the tzitzi is.

Yes, Petey, but "σάλα, Μαρουσώ μου, σάλα τα τζίτζι" wouldn't make any sense if we translated "sala" as "living room".

I don't think these are intelligible to any modern Greek person. lol
Or at least not to people who live in the cities.

Next time I go to Santorini or Tinos, I should ask the people there if they know what these words mean. lol

There's a word "τζιτζί", with the accent falling on the second iota. It's a slang, yes, originates from Turkish and means "great, perfect".
But... I suspect in this case "tzitzi" (accent falling on the first iota) comes from Italian. It was widely spoken in the Cyclades due to many centuries of Genoese and Venetian errr... presence.

I'll ask my mom...she's about as local as they come.

Please do so, because I'm curious too.

Hi Panselinos and Petey,
have I been totally worng with my suggestion?

I repeat it here:

So kind of: Shake, my dear marousa, shake the food in the kitchen,
let the fish burn and come down..... and so on

So may be the singer wants to say: leave all up to itself, i just want to come down to me to care about me (and not the food).


Actually it was the idea of my mother, but she didn´t know the clear translation of "tzitzi" either.

Have a nice day
Tahira

Originally Posted by panselinos

There's a word "τζιτζί", with the accent falling on the second iota. It's a slang, yes, originates from Turkish and means "great, perfect".

"tzitzi"? Isn't is pronunciated as "çiçi"? I don't know any word like this meaning "great"? Can you give an example if you can?

I don't know, Tahira. There is no way I can prove you right or wrong, because I just have no clue. Although I doubt it means "food".
It does sound logical, but... No idea.

bogazici86, we're talking about Greek here, not about Turkish, okay? In Greek there is no such sound as "ch".

Originally Posted by panselinos

Errr.. Could it actually be "τζιτζί" in the meaning of "τέλεια"? It comes from Turkish...

Didn't you say "it comes from turkish"? you talked about greek but you mentioned turkish, too. however you said "we're talking about greek, not turkish, okay?" Okay... I just wondered what the word means and where it comes from. And I just asked a question whether you can give me an example. Thanks for your answer...

Yes, we are talking about Greek and the lyrics of a Greek song.

The word I mentioned is a loan-word in Greek, yes. And comes from Turkish, yes. But you can't expect it to be pronounced the same way it's pronounced in Turkish, okay?
In Greek there are no such sounds as "ch", "sh" "j" (as in "jar" or "James"). Unless we're talking about Cypriot dialect, which we evidently aren't doing.

I didn't expect anything. I just asked a question whether it is pronunciated as "çiçi" or not. thanks for your "kind" replies.