Verses
The dance is accompanied by specific verses. For example:
- Arcaneaua, brâul verde,
- Vai, că bine i se şede,
- I se şede cui se şede,
- Codrului cu frunza verde.
Approximate translation: "Arkan, green belt, / Oh, it suits him well, / It suits whom it suits, / the green-leafed forest". The "green belt" is a kind of belt used by men to identify themselves as having emerged from adolescence and having become eligible. A man who has danced the arcan is sometimes called arcănit ("arkaned"), bun de oi ("good for sheep", i.e. good to be a shepherd), bun de însurat ("good to be married").
As the dance progresses, some repetitive recitations are to be shouted. These are meant to give choreographic directions and codify the dance description:
- Trii bătute, trii,
- Trii să le punem,
- Trii să le bătem,
- Trii şi pentru mine,
- Trii şi pentru tine;
- Încă trii că n-o fost bune,
- Alte trii pe loc le-om pune;
- Trii bătute, trii gătite,
- Un genunche şi-nainte.
or
- Tot acelea trii,
- Trii pentru Ilii.
Once the boy had danced the Arcan, he is acknowledged by the whole community as belonging to the eligible group of men - this is conditioned by precision in performing the dance. Hence, there is yet another group of verses, cautioning the participants:
- Foaie verde papanaş,
- Câte-un pinten, fecioraş.
- Luaţi sama, feciori, bine,
- Să nu păţim vreo ruşine,
- Că ne văd cele copile.
Translation (approximation): "Green leaf harefoot, / A spur at a time, virgin boy, / Take good care, virgin boys, / Not to disgrace ourselves, / Because the girls are watching us".
Read more about this topic: Arcan (dance)
Famous quotes containing the word verses:
“It is a fact often observed, that men have written good verses under the inspiration of passion, who cannot write well under other circumstances.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The King [Charles II] after the Restoration accused the poet, Edmund Waller, of having made finer verses in praise of Oliver Cromwell than of himself; to which he agreed, saying, that Fiction was the soul of Poetry.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“The night in prison was novel and interesting enough.... I found that even here there was a history and a gossip which never circulated beyond the walls of the jail. Probably this is the only house in the town where verses are composed, which are afterward printed in a circular form, but not published. I was shown quite a long list of verses which were composed by some young men who had been detected in an attempt to escape, who avenged themselves by singing them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)