Gela, “Mari Done”

This vision is of a cheerful youth and the beauty of courtship inspired by folklore rituals. A young lad courts his bride-to-be after harvest, on the way to the sedyanka (social gathering). He provokes the young maid with the melody of his bagpipe; he wishes her to sing along, to hear her honeyed voice. (they start to sing: “Mari Done biala Done mari…) Their song echoes in the valley, the wheat stalks flutter as the golden sun sinks in an ocean of infinite Balkan pines.

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