Rembetiko - Εμένα λόγια μη μου λες
Εμένα λόγια μη μου λες και μη με περιπαίζεις μπορεί μια μέρα να με δεις διευθυντή τραπέζης αβέρτα τα χιλιάρικα στους φίλους μου θα δίνω και με λουλά πολίτικο το ναργιλέ θα πίνω Τι πράμα είναι ο άνθρωπος δεν το 'χω καταλάβει εκεί που σβήνει πυρκαγιές άλλες φωτιές ανάβει κι αν του φερθεί μπαμπέσικα η τύχη η ρουφιάνα πατέρα κάνει τον καιρό και την ελπίδα μάνα Γι αυτό ξηγήσου φρόνιμα και μη με κατακρίνεις μα στην καινούργια μοιρασιά κουράγιο να μου δίνεις γιατί άμα πέσουν τα χαρτιά και δεν πετύχω άσσο καλογεράκι θα γενώ και θα φορέσω ράσο
Don't talk empty words to me and don't poke fun, one day you might see me a bank manager, I'll hand out thousand-drachma notes to my friends without a thought, and with a Constantinopolitan loulas I'll smoke the nargile. What kind of creature a person is, I've never figured out — where he puts out wildfires, he lights other fires, and if luck, that snitch, plays him false in bad faith, he takes time for a father and hope for a mother. So speak straight with me and don't condemn me, but at the new dealing, give me courage, because if the cards fall and I don't draw an ace, I'll become a little monk and put on the cassock.
Historical context
A Nikos Gatsos / Stavros Xarchakos composition for the 1983 Ferris film Rembetiko. The song lives in the small-time gambler’s world that runs alongside the rebetiko one — the καφενεία (coffee-houses) and back rooms of inter-war and post-war Piraeus and Athens, where card games (πρέφα, μπαρμπούτι, ξερή) were as much a social fixture as the music.
The cultural reference points name the speaker’s class fantasy precisely:
- The διευθυντής τραπέζης (bank manager) — the symbol of comfortable bourgeois respectability in 20th-century Greek life, the social opposite of the speaker.
- The χιλιάρικα (thousand-drachma notes) — the everyday unit of “generous spending” in the drachma era.
- The λουλάς πολίτικος — a Constantinople-style hookah bowl, carrying the prestige of the Asia Minor refined-leisure tradition.
And the closing image — καλογεράκι with the ράσο — sits at the other pole of the Greek imagination: the monk, the renunciate, the man who when everything fails withdraws to Mount Athos or a remote monastery. Casino or cell, with nothing between.
Reading
The song is a manifesto in three movements, addressed throughout to a skeptic — someone who has been talking to the speaker, perhaps lecturing him, perhaps mocking him.
V1 — the dream. The opening line Don’t talk empty words to me, and don’t poke fun sets the register. The speaker isn’t asking to be believed; he’s asking to be left alone in his vision. And the vision is precise: bank manager, friends fed thousand-drachma notes, the πολίτικος hookah on the table. The dream is not modest. It is total social arrival.
V2 — the philosophy. The middle stanza pulls back from the dream and offers an aphorism: What kind of creature is a person, I’ve never figured out — where he puts out wildfires, he lights other fires. People are inconsistent, contradictory, both rescuers and arsonists. And luck is not a neutral force but a ρουφιάνα, a snitch — fate not as blind chance but as active betrayer. The speaker’s response to that betrayal is the song’s most beautiful line: πατέρα κάνει τον καιρό και την ελπίδα μάνα — he adopts time for a father, hope for a mother. The orphaned man makes new parents out of patience and possibility.
V3 — the gambler’s prayer, and the fallback. The closing stanza is addressed back to the listener: So speak straight with me, give me courage at the new dealing. The “new dealing” (καινούργια μοιρασιά) is both a literal hand of cards and a metaphor for every new turn of fate. The speaker is at the table.
The twist is the last couplet. If the cards fall wrong and he doesn’t draw his ace, he won’t accept defeat in the ordinary way. He’ll go all the way to the other extreme: καλογεράκι θα γενώ και θα φορέσω ράσο — I’ll become a little monk and put on the cassock. The two poles — banker and monk, casino and cell — are the only options he recognises. The middle, the resignation of ordinary life, is the one fate he refuses.
Notes
- λόγια
- Εμένα λόγια μη μου λες και μη με περιπαίζεις
- words (empty talk)
- In rebetiko / mangas register, λόγια carries a contemptuous shade — just words, hot air, lecture. The opening is a refusal to be talked down to.
- αβέρτα
- αβέρτα τα χιλιάρικα στους φίλους μου θα δίνω
- freely, without holding back
- Mangas slang for spending or giving openly, with abandon. Originally Italian *averta* (open) via Levantine commerce.
- χιλιάρικα
- αβέρτα τα χιλιάρικα στους φίλους μου θα δίνω
- thousand-drachma notes
- Before the 2002 euro changeover, χιλιάρικο = 1.000 drachma banknote — the standard image of generous spending in 20th-century Greek lyrics.
- λουλά πολίτικο
- και με λουλά πολίτικο το ναργιλέ θα πίνω
- a Constantinopolitan loulas
- λουλάς = the ceramic bowl on top of a ναργιλέ (water pipe) that holds the tobacco or hashish. Πολίτικο = from Πόλη (Constantinople); anything *πολίτικο* in this register carries the prestige and refinement of the Constantinopolitan tradition.
- μπαμπέσικα
- κι αν του φερθεί μπαμπέσικα η τύχη η ρουφιάνα
- treacherously, in bad faith
- From μπαμπεσιά (Albanian/Turkish-rooted) — a serious word in rebetiko for the worst kind of betrayal: breaking faith with someone who trusted you.
- η τύχη η ρουφιάνα
- κι αν του φερθεί μπαμπέσικα η τύχη η ρουφιάνα
- luck, the snitch
- ρουφιάνα = informer, narc, traitor — a fierce epithet. Personifying luck as the lowest kind of betrayer (the one who turns you in for money) is pure rebetiko: fate isn't blind, it's compromised.
- πατέρα κάνει τον καιρό και την ελπίδα μάνα
- πατέρα κάνει τον καιρό και την ελπίδα μάνα
- he takes time for a father and hope for a mother
- A folk image of survival after abandonment: when luck plays you false, you adopt new parents — time and hope. To 'make X your father / mother' (κάνω πατέρα / μάνα) is to take it as guardian.
- ξηγήσου
- Γι αυτό ξηγήσου φρόνιμα και μη με κατακρίνεις
- speak straight with me
- Imperative of ξηγιέμαι (more standard: εξηγούμαι, to explain oneself). In the mangas register: deal straight, be honest, drop the games.
- στην καινούργια μοιρασιά
- μα στην καινούργια μοιρασιά κουράγιο να μου δίνεις
- at the new dealing (of cards)
- μοιρασιά = the deal of a new hand of cards. The wider folk pun is on μοίρα (fate / share) — every new deal is a new turn of the fates.
- καλογεράκι θα γενώ και θα φορέσω ράσο
- καλογεράκι θα γενώ και θα φορέσω ράσο
- I'll become a little monk and put on the cassock
- καλογεράκι = diminutive of καλόγερος, monk. ράσο = the long black monastic robe. The image of the gambler-turned-monk is the classic Greek either/or: either the casino or the monastery, with nothing in between.