Vasiljovo 1

Vasiljovo1.newest.mp3

Commentary on the text:

When the investigator’s words are transcribed in brackets, it means they do not appear on the audio but are rather reconstructed to recreate the sense of the original conversation. These words appear in English translation only in Glossed View, in both English and Bulgarian in Line View, and in Bulgarian only in Cyrillic Line View

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Vasiljovo 1

1 (a) [0:00] Shall I talk first of all, first of all, [about] when we were

2 (a) [0:04] still young girls – because I wasn’t married yet when the war –

3 (a) [0:08] When the war – when the war began. That was in [19]12.

4 (a) [0:13] The Bulgarians and the Serbs and the Greeks fought – they defeated the Turks.

5 (a) [0:18] On the Turkish border, that’s where they beat them. Eh – that was the war.

6 (a) [0:24] It didn’t last long. And they, since they are – I don’t know.

7 (a) [0:27] [But] there was [this] song that they were singing. [It was] because of the war.

8 (a) [0:32] I don’t remember who their commander was,

9 (a) [0:36] the one who said to them [in the song]

10 (a) [0:38] “Stand up, brothers, stand up, and open fire!

11 (a) [0:40] If God has ordained it, we shall soon take Edirne,

12 (a) [0:44] and we shall enter Istanbul.

13 (a) [0:47] We shall catch Osman Pasha,

14 (a) [0:49] We shall take him to Sofia,

15 (a) [0:51] [and] we will make coffee for him.”

16 (a) [0:52] That was the song – [the one] they’d sung because of the war.

17 (a) [0:57] And then – didn’t they fight again?

18 (a) [1:02] Shall I tell you about how we carried on,

19 (a) [1:05] or – or about the other war?

20 (VZh) [About the other war.]

21 (a) [1:09] Well, at that time we weren’t – we weren’t grown [yet].

22 (a) [1:11] We had a brother, his name was Gacho. He perished in Dobruja,

23 (a) [1:14] in the war when they were fighting to drive out the Soviet Union.

24 (a) [1:18] Weren’t they chasing – those Germans were – and the Bulgarians,

25 (a) [1:22] weren’t they in alliance?

26 (VZh) [What did you do when you were girls?]

27 (a) [1:23] [Ah, should I talk] about young girls now? Ah, girls. We were girls

28 (a) [1:29] and we’d get together for a work bee. We’d get together at the work bee,

29 (a) [1:32] boys and girls would get together, we sit and do our work.

30 (a) [1:37] The girls and the boys sit, and then they get up when the bagpipe starts playing.

31 (a) [1:41] The bagpipe plays, we get up and we dance. And then the work bee breaks up,

32 (a) [1:48] they all get up and everyone goes home. Even if

33 (a) [1:50] we sit and sit – when we get hungry, that was how we were.

34 (a) [1:53] And my mother – and then we start – Everyone [at the work bee] is hungry. We get up,

35 (a) [1:58] and make polenta. They called it “mamaliga”, the Germ-

36 (a) [2:01] Those guys called that “mamaliga”.

37 (VZh) [Weren’t they Romanians?]

38 (a) [2:04] We pour out milk, white cheese – we’ve got livestock, we raise livestock –

39 (a) [2:08] We eat our fill, [then] they get up and go home. And when Christmas came,

40 (a) [2:13] we make “kravay” (ring-shaped buns). They kneaded bread dough

41 (a) [2:20] and we make “kravay” and they take it to [their] mothers and fathers.

42 (a) [2:24] Whatever anyone [makes] they give to [their] mother and father.

43 (a) [2:29] They give it along with the “kravay”, to their mother and their father.

44 (a) [2:31] Then comes St Basil’s day, and when that comes – when St. Basil’s day comes

45 (a) [2:35] there was [the custom] that children go out as “survakar” (New Year’s well-wisher).

46 (a) [2:38] And we girls would get together and sing [songs of enchantment] over our rings.

47 (a) [2:44] We came to “sing” over the rings here at the river, [which]

48 (a) [2:47] is [at this point] ice. So the boys and girls got together,

49 (a) [2:51] and we – they take a tin-plated kettle [that] they’ve poured water into,

50 (a) [2:55] and put it on the ice, and under the kettle – there’s oats under the kettle.

51 (a) [3:01] And, you know, we all have little rings on our hands. Rings.

52 (a) [3:04] So each one drops her rings into the water, and we sing over them.

53 (a) [3:10] We finish the songs and they take – on the night before St. Basil’s Day –

54 (a) [3:15] they take the kettle. [So,] early in the morning on St. Basils’ day we'll come

55 (a) [3:17] early again to sing. We come to sing here at the river

56 (a) [3:21] and take out the rings to identify the rings [so as to learn]

57 (a) [3:25] what fortune will come to whoever [owns each ring]. Some will have a healthy year,

58 (a) [3:30] others will have – if it’s bent like a “kravay” [it means] guests are coming.

59 (a) [3:36] That is, guests, and maybe even matchmakers, are coming. Another [fortune]

60 (a) [3:41] was – there was a haystack by the road and someone goes by [and]

61 (a) [3:46] pulls some out [to read her fortune]. And another and another. And again they tell fortunes

62 (a) [3:50] from that one, but I don’t remember anymore how they interpreted that one. Damn it,

63 (a) [3:52] I’ve forgotten how they used to interpret that one. I’ve forgotten it, I don’t remember.

64 (a) [3:58] I’m not able to tell you how they interpreted that one.

65 (a) [3:59] You see, we repeat them, [unintelligible], and repeat them again.

66 (a) [4:01] That’s how we observed St. Basil’s day. And then will come St John’s day. The boys

67 (a) [4:09] who are here ride horseback. They run them at a gallop on St. John’s day.

68 (a) [4:16] They ride horse at full gallop. Then comes Shrovetide, and we start to fast.

69 (a) [4:23] for the “great fast” (Lent). We make banitsa and get together.

70 (a) [4:28] Every two houses get together in one place to observe the fast [together].

71 (a) [4:32] They bought – some buy white halva. So we make [different kinds of] banitsa.

72 (a) [4:39] We’ve cooked up everything. And we hang up a big lump of white cheese –

73 (a) [4:45] we tie it on a string and hang it on the beams.