Gorno Vŭršilo 1

Gorno vyrshilo1.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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Gorno Vŭršilo 1

1 (VZh) [What work did you do in the garden?]

2 (a) I dug out [onions]. I picked grapes, I picked cherries, I gathered in the hay

3 (a) [0:09] Whatever there was [to] do in the cooperative farm, I did it all

4 (a) [0:12] and in the end I went blind and now [wear] glasses.

5 (VZh) [What work did you do when you were young?]

6 (a) [0:15] Ah, what did I do! Well, we had a vineyard, we would dig and harvest [it].

7 (a) [0:19] The two of us did all the digging and harvesting in a vineyard [covering] twenty decares.

8 (a) [0:23] We threshed – and there weren’t harvesters then, [we did it] with oxen. Hey, hey!

9 (a) [0:27] [Just] a winnower, boom! boom! boom! [laughter] boom! Your breath sticks in your teeth,

10 (a) [0:31] granny’s one! We had a very ha- It’s not hard for the youth now.

11 (a) [0:35] Tractors do the plowing for them, harvesters do the reaping for them, what trouble is that?

12 (a) [0:39] But what we went through! Two of us dug out a whole fifth of a hectare of vineyard

13 (a) [0:44] We plow it in the spring, we hoe it three times in the summer, and now

14 (a) [0:48] they can’t dig it out [properly] even once! [laughter]

15 (VZh) [Why don’t they go out to do the digging?]

16 (a) [0:50] They don’t have the time! They’re off on their own, it’s “never their turn”, and that’s all.

17 (a) [0:54] They sit in the grass, we ask for grapes, they brought in two little bags of grapes. But that’s

18 (a) [0:58] not grapes, it’s tarator (yogurt-cucumber soup)! With garlic, we’d make tarator! [laughter]

19 (VZh) [Which animals did you have?]

20 (a) [1:02] Sheep, donkeys, pigs, chickens. I was a shepherdess until I quit [work].

21 (a) [1:08] I was always going out with the sheep. The donkeys are at my son’s. Two donkeys now.

22 (VZh) [Did you have oxen, or any other animals?]

23 (a) [1:13] We bought donkeys, two little ones. Little donkeys, that’s what we work with now.

24 (a) [1:19] With donkeys. No oxen [any more].

25 (VZh) [What work does a woman have to do when she gets up?]

26 (a) [1:22] When I get up I start mixing the bread, and after I mix it I throw it into the oven

27 (a) [1:26] I take it out, I put the hot bread [into a bag] and go up the hill

28 (a) [1:29] and reap in the collective farm. And they say “Granny Rayna, when did you bake it?”

29 (a) [1:33] I said, “When did I bake it? During the night!” I also bring hearthcake,

30 (a) [1:36] [and] they say, “But when did you make it, huh?” – “Well, when did I make it?

31 (a) [1:38] Now, with the bread!” They were amazed at me, [and said]

32 (a) [1:41] “Did you see how Granny Rayna ended up now?

33 (b) [laughter]

34 (a) [1:43] She [did all this and now] can’t bring water to herself!” [laughter]

35 (VZh) [What did you use to mix bread in?]

36 (a) [1:45] A kneading trough, like that. And then we shake the sieve constantly, that’s how we do it.

37 (a) [1:50] We tap on it, and sift [the flour] out. I’ve [also] made bread with potatoes.

38 (a) [1:53] There wasn’t – hail battered us one year and I didn’t have flour, only a little,

39 (a) [1:58] So I boil up a potato, peel it, and mix it in the kneading trough

40 (a) [2:02] and knead bread – And when you take it out, it’s the twin sister [of bread]! [laughter]

41 (VZh) [How did one grind the grain?]

42 (a) [2:06] Well [for] white [flour] they would grind it on simple stones, two fingers in width.

43 (VZh) [Is the bread they have now O.K.?]

44 (a) [2:12] Yes, they give (= sell) us nice bread. How can you say about good [bread]

45 (a) [2:14] [that] it isn’t good? I bought some white flour [because] I felt like eating

46 (a) [2:18] “white”, [like] that there: I kneaded it up this morning and there it is in the pan.

47 (a) [2:20] I [just] took it out.

48 (VZh) [How were weddings celebrated?]

49 (a) [2:22] How was a wedding done? Well, we’ll invite our people

50 (a) [2:24] and the [place] fills up, then the violinists play, then we open up the wine.

51 (a) [2:28] we slaughter two sheep. And they cook, they eat, they drink

52 (a) [2:32] and they shout all night. We start it [all] on Friday,

53 (a) [2:35] and finish the wedding on Monday. That’s how a wedding was done then,

54 (a) [2:40] not in restaurants the way you [do it] now. We [do it] at home.

55 (a) [2:43] When we married off my older son, we slaughtered two goats.

1 (VZh) [Каква работа имаше в градината?]

[What work did you do in the garden?]

2 (a) səm vədìla gròzde səm bràla čerɛ̀ši səm bràla sɛ̀no səm zbiràla

I dug out [onions]. I picked grapes, I picked cherries, I gathered in the hay

3 (a) [0:09] ə kakvò e imàlo f tèkezèto sìčko sam rabotìlḁ

Whatever there was [to] do in the cooperative farm, I did it all

4 (a) [0:12] i nàj s'ètne ok'orèx s òčila sam

and in the end I went blind and now [wear] glasses.

5 (VZh) [Какво си работила като млада?]

[What work did you do when you were young?]

6 (a) [0:15] ami kvò sam rabotìla mi lòzje ìma:me kòpa:me žàne:me

Ah, what did I do! Well, we had a vineyard, we would dig and harvest [it].

7 (a) [0:19] dvamìnata dvàese dèkara lòzje dvamìnata gi iskòpva:me i ožànva:me

The two of us did all the digging and harvesting in a vineyard [covering] twenty decares.

8 (a) [0:23] varšèm pa nèmaše togàva kombàjni s vòlovete d'èe d'èe

We threshed – and there weren’t harvesters then, [we did it] with oxen. Hey, hey!

9 (a) [0:27] ednà vejàčka dṛ̀n dṛ̀n dṛ̀n [laughter] dṛ̀n tḁ dušàta ti dòe v zabìte