Rembetiko - Erinaki

Recording: 1983 Collection: Rembetiko 1983 Tags: Rembetiko , Film Links: Possibly different Erinaki recording Performed for the 1983 film Rembetiko

Μη μ' αρωτάτε βλάμμηδες
γιατί όλο συλλογιέμαι,
καρα-γιαγκίνι μες στην καρδιά
έχω και τυραννιέμαι,
ααχ! φέρτε πρέζα να πρεζάρω
και χασίσι να φουμάρω.

Μ' έχει λωλό το Ερηνάκι
με το μουσμουλί γοβάκι,
βρε του μιλάω δε μου ξηγιέται
σκάει απ' τα γέλια κι όλο κουνιέται,
φέρτε πρέζα να πρεζάρω
και χασίσι να φουμάρω.

Ο μερακλής ο άνθρωπος
πονεί μα δεν το λέγει
κι αν τραγουδά ρε ψεύτη ντουνιά
μέσα η καρδιά του κλαίει,
ααχ! φέρτε πρέζα να πρεζάρω
και χασίσι να φουμάρω.

Μ' έχει λωλό το Ερηνάκι
με το μουσμουλί γοβάκι,
βρε του μιλάω δε μου ξηγιέται
σκάει απ' τα γέλια κι όλο κουνιέται,
φέρτε πρέζα να πρεζάρω
και χασίσι να φουμάρω.

Don't ask me, lads,
why I'm lost in thought,
a black fire in my heart
has me tormented,
aah! bring me a hit to snort
and hashish to smoke.

Erinaki has me out of my mind,
with her medlar-yellow shoes,
hey, I talk to her, she won't give me an answer,
she bursts out laughing and keeps swaying,
bring me a hit to snort
and hashish to smoke.

The man of meraki
hurts but never says it,
and if he sings, oh lying world,
inside, his heart is weeping,
aah! bring me a hit to snort
and hashish to smoke.

Erinaki has me out of my mind,
with her medlar-yellow shoes,
hey, I talk to her, she won't give me an answer,
she bursts out laughing and keeps swaying,
bring me a hit to snort
and hashish to smoke.

Historical context

There are at least two distinct Erinaki songs in the rebetiko corpus and they should not be confused. The first is the 1934 Panagiotis Toundas composition (recorded by Rita Abatzi), a pleading love song whose opening line is “Ερηνάκι για την εμορφιά σου”. The second is this one, written for the 1983 Ferris film by Stavros Xarchakos and Nikos Gatsos — a hashish-and-heroin lament whose opening is “Μη μ’ αρωτάτε βλάμμηδες”. The composer/lyricist attribution for this film version is still unresolved on this page (see the Attribution note).

The drug register here — πρέζα (a powder hit) paired with χασίσι (hashish) — is the kind of lyric that would have been banned outright after August 1937, when the Metaxas regime ordered record companies to stop pressing hashish songs and to “rehabilitate” rebetiko as respectable entertainment. The 1983 film deliberately reaches back into the pre-censorship register, when songs like this circulated openly in the tekedes.

Reading

The structure is the classic teke lament: an opening verse of explanation, a chorus that always returns to the same cry, and an interior verse that universalizes the speaker’s pain.

The opening “Μη μ’ αρωτάτε βλάμμηδες” — don’t ask me, lads — is addressed to the speaker’s own circle, his βλάμμηδες, the men around him in the room. He won’t talk about what’s eating him; instead, he names it metaphorically: καρα-γιαγκίνι, a black smoldering fire inside the heart. Not a flame, a smoldering. The grief is not acute; it has settled.

The chorus refuses solace and asks for fuel: bring a hit to snort, bring hashish to smoke. The two drugs are paired deliberately — the snort sharpens, the smoke dulls — and the speaker wants both at once. This is the rebetiko stance: the pain is not to be solved but to be survived with chemistry and sound.

The verse about Erinaki gives the cause without naming it as the cause. She’s mad-making (με έχει λωλό), beautiful (medlar-yellow court shoes — a detail of class and care), and indifferent (she won’t deal straight with me). She laughs and sways and lets the speaker speak into the air. Her power is in not engaging.

The interior verse — the man of meraki / hurts but never says it — generalizes. The μερακλής is the figure who feels deeply but doesn’t speak the feeling. His singing is itself the disguise of his weeping. The phrase ψεύτη ντουνιά (lying world) is what he sings at, the audience for the disguise — a whole society that takes the song at face value and never hears what’s under it.

The song ends without resolution. The drugs don’t come, Erinaki doesn’t soften, the world keeps lying. The form simply repeats.

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