Zacharias Papantoniou2728994The High Mountains — Aphrodo's wedding1918Wikisource
Aphrodo's wedding
The in-laws arrive. They come on horses covered with red and green kilims...
In front is the pope with his white beard. There is also the banner with a red apple on the top.
Then follows the godfather, the husband and the parents; the men in fustanelle, all white, the women with gold necklaces on their chests.
All the children are invited to the wedding. They set off with Mr Stephan and go to the Vlachs' cabins.
In one cabin, the women and girls prepare the bride. During the preparation, violins played a sad refrain.
As soon as she was ready, they asked a child to bring the bride's white shoes which her husband has brought. The child chosen for that must still have his father and his mother.
They chose Foudoulis. He has his mother, his father, his grandma and his grandpa; and they all have strong teeth. He leaned over to put the shoes on the bride and she kissed him on his pink cheeks.
In the evening the marriage took place. The pope recited many vows, from a book covered in wax. The pope sang with the cantor, and old Athanase helped a bit too.
Old Athanase has heard this so many times. He has married so many daughters and sons that he knows all this almost by heart.
After the crowning, the godfather threw a pink silk cloth over the shoulders of the bride and her husband.
In the evening the table was prepared in front of the cabins. The bride was seated on one side with the mother-in-law and on the other side were the men. The bride's first cousins and with them Lambros brought the dishes and served the wine.
The women and girls prepare the bride.
When the pope raised his hand to adjust his hat, everyone was quiet, as they understood that he was going to chant the troparion – a short hymn. And then the old pope from Colombe, with his white beard, sang the hymn to the Virgin Mary in his beautiful strong voice.
Then it was old Athanase's turn to sing.
The pope looked at him smiling.
At the weddings in his family he always sang the first song after the troparion.
The breeder, holding his white head still, recited this song, quietly and surely:
An old patriarch,
but not so aged,
at a hundred and nine
watered his grey ass.
He covered the mountains
And looked at the trees.
“You mountains, high mountains,
now with the spring
Can't you make me younger
my grey ass and me?
like you rejuvenate
and all these shrubs become new,
their branches a thousand years old
So I may become young again
as I was before?
The pope, hearing that old Athanase wanted to be rejuvenated, looked at him smiling.
Then the bride's parents-in-law sang this song:
A little bird weeps at the river.
By chance I pass by there
I stop and ask him:
—Why are you crying my little bird?
—Yesterday I was at my mother's house
and this evening I'm at my mother-in-law's.
And the bridegroom's parents-in-law sang again:
Leave, lady and mother-in-law
to receive the partridge
to receive the partridge
which walks jauntily
See her, see her
sun and moon call her
see her, how she walks
like an angel with a sword
Where you approach to enter
you will appear like sun and moon
Leave, lady and mother-in-law
to put her into a cage
so she cheeps like a bird
The next morning they loaded the dowry.
The bride went forward to mount the decorated horse. Like the summits, her cheeks were reddened by the sun which rose at that moment.
As she said her goodbyes, to her mother, brother, her family, all the descendants of old Athanase were crying. The tears flowed abundantly. That's the two rivers that Aphrodo had seen in her dream!
Aphrodo kissed Lambros for a long time. Then she kissed the children too, just as she had Lambros; she kissed Phanis and Dimos on both cheeks, she kissed Andreas, Foudoulis and Costakis.
Foudoulis shed a tear. Phanis shed a tear. The violins played for the departure, the girls sang:
Go our bride
our little girl...
She has left the garden,
to the roses...
The groom's brother held the bridle of the bride's horse; out of respect for her, he is going to make the journey on foot.
The groom's family set out, went up the hillside, they leave for Colombe. Now they seem very far away.
Shortly afterwards, they disappeared behind the mountain.
