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:
“Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we shall die.”
—Bible: Hebrew Isaiah, 22:13.
Almost the same words are found in 1 Corinthians 15:32, and both verses are frequently confused with Ecclesiastes 8:15: “A man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry.”
“A true poem is distinguished not so much by a felicitous expression, or any thought it suggests, as by the atmosphere which surrounds it. Most have beauty of outline merely, and are striking as the form and bearing of a stranger; but true verses come toward us indistinctly, as the very breath of all friendliness, and envelop us in their spirit and fragrance.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“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)