Racka
Racka (Bulgarian dialect)
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U nedele ditu sti mu zváli,
Sincata smi se prebráli.
Da jadém', da pijém',
I Rácka da ja-izvidém’.
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Rodnicite mlogu sa žálni,
ÄŒi sám' néja sa ja-utránli.
A sigá za ja izvidat,
Na Boni za ja prededat.
Májćo milna, májćo dubra,
Zako s' táj jáku žálna?
Zako s' tolkus jáku žálna,
ÄŒi sám' néja si ja-utránla.
Racka - Rafaela (English)
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On a Sunday, you invited us to the wedding
We all gathered
To eat and to drink
And to send Rafaela away to marry
​
Her parents are very sad
Because she is their only child
And now it’s time to send her away
To give her to her husband, Boni
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Oh sweet mum, oh dear mum,
Why are you so sad?
Why are you so sad?
Because she was their only child
"This song is a continuation, an arrangement of my grandmother’s song. This is a song originally composed by my grandmother for my father, who was just beginning his musical journey at the age of 12, playing at a wedding. The bride’s name was Racka. My grandmother comes from a traditional world. She has a gift for looking around and reading people’s life stories on their faces. For her, every person has a song — one that soothes their pain.
​She composed this song back then, and a while ago, during a video call, she sang it to me. Racka’s story deeply moved me. The lyrics speak of that moment in a wedding when the bride leaves her parents’ home to join the groom’s family. This ceremony carried an atmosphere almost like a funeral. The bride and her parents wept in farewell as she left behind her home, family, neighbours, and friends to become a wife in someone else’s household.
​The lyrics made me reflect on how women today still find pieces of themselves in stories like this — and how transgenerational trauma lingers in our collective memory.
"
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Tereza Catarov - voice
Christos Stylianides - trumpet
Cem Evin - guitar
Yiorgos Bereris - piano
Thodoris Ziarkas - bass
Billy Pod - drums
Lyrics - Tereza Catarov and Terezia Catarov
Composition - Tereza Catarov
Sound engineer - Simone Galizio
Mixing and Mastering - Alex Bonney