The Greek folk songs—Dimotika Tragoudia in Greek— are songs of the Greek countryside, from island towns to mountain villages. They have been passed down from generation to generation in a centuries-long oral tradition, lasting until the present. They are songs of every aspect of old Greek life: from love songs and ballads, to laments for the dead, to songs of travel and brigands. Written down at the start of the nineteenth century, they are the first works of modern Greek poetry, playing a crucial role in forming the country’s modern language and literature. Still known and sung today, they are the Homer of modern Greece.

This new translation brings the songs to an English readership for the first time in over a century, capturing the lyricism of the Greek in modern English verse.

I was visited by a friend of the modern Greeks, who had with him some folk songs of that people, the most beautiful of all known to us from the point of view of lyric, dramatic and epic poetry. Yet these are folk songs!
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe [letter to his son, 1815]

Contents:
Foreword
Introduction: Questions of an Oral Tradition
Note on translation
Greek folk songs
Songs of history and brigands
The Sack of Constantinople
Song of Varlamis
Song of Boukovalas
Song of Zidros
Song of Nikotsaras
Song of Pliatskas
Kitsos and his Mother
Song of Despo - the Souliote Wars
Song of Athanasios Diakos
The Capture of Kiamil-Bey
The Sortie from Mesolonghi
The Death of Karaiskakis
Ballads
The Ballad of the Dead Brother
The Wicked In-laws
The Return of the Long-lost Husband
Mother Murderess
The Merchant
The Bridge of Arta
Charos and the Young Man
The Struggle between Tsamados and his Son
Songs of Greeks far from home
Now It's May and Now It's Spring
The Wife of the Man Abroad
Forgetfulness Brings Happiness
To Be Far From Home
The Living Separation
Bird of Mine That's Far Abroad
Yanni's Handkerchief
The Witch
Mother, You're Sending Me Away
Death Abroad
Songs of love and desire
How Love Is Caught
The One I Love
For Dimos
I Kissed Red Lips
The Thief of Kisses
The One-Armed Man
The Nun
The Priest's Daughter
The Abandoned Girl
For a Pair of Roses
Yannis and Maroudio
Two Couplets
Laments and songs of the underworld
Charos and the Souls
A Boat Appeared upon the Shore
Charos' Pavilion
May's Garden
The Keys to the Underworld
The Lovely Girl's Coffin
Many Are the Good Deeds of the Lord
Is It Not Unjust...
Nine Lamenters
The Wooden Horse
Lament for Athanasios Diakos
Lament from the Pontus
Lament from the Mani - for Yorgis Seremetis
Encomium for a Girl
Encomium for a Boy
I Dreamed I Was to Die
Index of Greek titles
Note on sources