What do this Greek song mean?

Question

I read the words, but still not sure what he is trying to say.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5uQ4An2L7Q

Who is Roza? What is happening??

Answer 1

This piece is part of the album "Στου αιώνα την παράγκα"
(at Century's shed) by Thanos Mikroutsikos. [If you have the chance to listen to it, you'll get a better understanding of the "spirit" of the piece.]

"Roza" is said to have been based on a true story in Salonica. Roza was a woman of the street and some claim that the man singing about her was a drug user in love with her. So the song begins from it and goes on describing things of their moments together in a way that the description is open to personal interpretation. Picture parts of a big city that do not actually fit the modernized way of living, that host the "social outlaws", something a tiny bit like a ghetto : time seems to flow differently for the people that live there and their problems, their worries - sorrows - loves. Doesn't it make some sense now?

I'll make a few comments:

The woman invites the man to a "bar" since the weather is bad. There is humidity around, maybe you can feel that the quality of the service to be offered will be poor, since the dampness cannot be avoided [it happens mostly in neglected places, without warmth, where it's a priority to make some money instead of creating beauty]. They both are on the road, probably a big street like a national road (where the trucks can travel conveniently). The man is thirsty. To me it seems he's mostly thirsty for non-material life-giving things, and being with the woman is his only hope to escape an unpleasant reality.

They are together now, but they reside in different places, probably in reality and maybe in the back of their minds, or the singer's mind only. This means that something is keeping them apart - it can be important or not so important, but it makes a difference because it can be a factor of insecurity. They do not belong to each other. Also, their residence locations are like cells: they seem to be imprisoned in situations they cannot break free from. However, the moment is a chance to imagine, to let one's self go in day-dreaming without worrying about tomorrow. The love they can give each other is their fortune.

Roza seems to be playing with him; the fantasy turns into a nightmare. It's a game of love where the loser is devastated. He has little power to react, and while the vital force inside him tends to help him live (like with everyone of us), he feels that all his strength is wasted, he falls into an abyss.

At such moments you think that all our hopes, our fears, our needs come to life through our actions and, once actions happen, they are part of the history, of our memory, of our legacy that affects the way we'll deal with our life afterwards. But in most cases people seem to be silent: they forget or choose to forget or they are emotionally exhausted or they have lived so many things that it doesn't really matter to say a thing. What if someone dared to make a comment? And the man remains in touch with his inner self and his thoughts, he doesn't care for modernities, maybe he doesn't care about a thing (all the non-sense things that seem to be imposed by an impersonal system) except surviving once again.

The object of his love is flammable - his feeling is so intense it can set a fire. But time goes by, people change, their way of thinking changes, their desires change and that increases the distance, it makes relationships go cold. When bad weather (or sorrow, in general,) is already there, the only thing he can do is find some relief in his sleep by Roza's side, even if he has not found food (for his stomach or his soul), even if the lorries go over them (above the basement they live in or on the bridge-roads above the road on which they walk or over their bodies metaphorically, just like other people continue their lives -who cared for those two?-, just like life keeps bringing things that wear us down).

Answer 2

My lips,dry and thirsty,
search for water on the asphalt
the wheeled machines are running past me
and you are telling me that the cloudburst awaits us
and drawing me into a damp cabaret

We are walking down the same street together
but our dungeons are separate
we circle a magic city
I no longer want to learn what it is we look for
it's enough if you give me just two kisses

you play me at roulette and lose me
in a nightmarish fairy tale
now my voice is the voice of an insect
my life an uprooted plant
you cut me off and toss me into the void

How need turns into history
how history turns into silence
what are you looking at me for, Rosa, all numb
forgive me for not understanding you
what do the computers say, and the numbers?

My beloved, made of coal and sulphur,
how can time have altered you so?
the wheeled machines are running over us
and I in the fog and in the rain
am sleeping by your side, fasting

How need turns into history
how history turns into silence
what are you looking at me for, Rosa, all numb
forgive me for not understanding you
what do the computers say, and the numbers?


That is a translation I found-though being word for word it's missing out on the essence.

Answer 3

I agree with Tolia, the song is one fo the best greek songs, and it is a little bit difficult to be understood not by language, but by meaning, it describes the interior world of a soul in a metaforic way

Answer 4

that is a wonderful song, zembekiko !

a man's dance, full of frustration, agony and pain

If you manage to understand this song, you ll be able to feel the Greek soul.
its an anthem to life, the bad things in life, misery, pain and disappointment
those phrases he use, they are chosen to bring up the "black"feelings.
He sings about a man that talks about his life, the emptiness, pain, agony, fight to succeed something better that it never comes. He s fed up with new-modern philosophies and he seems to have no future-no fate

Thus, above all this, there is something good! this kind of songs combine sadness and happiness, frustration and hope

Its oxymoron I know, but this is what it is! we sing about bad things in life and we dance on them!
This is our way to send disappointment and problems away

If you really want to feel Greek music, dont try to understand it! Many times lyrics are difficult to understand!
Just listen to it, and let yourself go