Molly Malone: Ο μύθος της Ιρλανδίας! Η θλιμμένη ψαροπώλισσα...

Statue of Molly on Grafton Street

"Molly Malone" (also known as "Cockles and Mussels") is a popular song which has acquired the status of an Irish anthem. It has become the unofficial anthem of Dublin City in Ireland. The song is sung by supporters of Dublin GAA, Leinster Rugby teams and Irish international rugby team, and tells the tale of a beautiful fishmonger who plied her trade on the streets of Dublin, but died young, of a fever.

Molly is commemorated in a statue designed by Jeanne Rynhart, placed at the bottom of Grafton Street in Dublin, erected to celebrate the city's first millennium in 1987; this statue is known colloquially as 'The Tart With The Cart', 'The Dish With The Fish' and 'The Trollop With The Scallops'. The statue portrays Molly as a busty young woman in seventeenth-century dress, and is claimed to represent the real person on whom the song is based. Her low-cut dress and large breasts were justified on the grounds that as 'women breastfed publicly in Molly's time, breasts were popped out all over the place'

An urban legend has grown up around the figure of the historical Molly, who has been presented variously as a hawker by day and part-time prostitute by night, or - in contrast - as one of the few chaste female street-hawkers of her day.

However, there is no evidence that the song is based on a real woman who lived in the 17th century, or at any other time, despite claims that records of her birth and death have been located. The name "Molly" originated as a familiar version of the names Mary and Margaret. While many such "Molly" Malones were born in Dublin over the centuries, no evidence connects any of them to the events in the song, which was not recorded earlier than the early 1880s, when it was published as a work written and composed by James Yorkston, of Edinburgh. The song is in a familiar tragi-comic mode popular in this period, probably influenced by earlier songs with a similar theme, such as Percy Montross's "My Darling Clementine", which was written circa 1880.

Molly Malone

In Dublin's fair city,
where the girls are so pretty,
I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone,
As she wheeled her wheel-barrow,
Through streets broad and narrow,
Crying, "Cockles and mussels, alive alive oh!"

"Alive-a-live-oh,
Alive-a-live-oh",
Crying "Cockles and mussels, alive alive oh".

She was a fishmonger,
And sure 'twas no wonder,
For so were her mother and father before,
And they each wheeled their barrow,
Through streets broad and narrow,
Crying, "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive oh!"

(chorus)

She died of a fever,
And no one could save her,
And that was the end of sweet Molly Malone.
Now her ghost wheels her barrow,
Through streets broad and narrow,
Crying, "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive oh!"

Πηγή: Wikipedia
Δεν έκανα μετάφραση γιατί όλοι ξέρετε αγγλικά κι άλλωστε είναι εύκολο πολύ.
Ζωντανά! Σπαρταράνε! Που θα 'λεγε μια δικιά μας ψαροπώλισσα.
Υπάρχει και μια κακή εκδοχή, παλιοαγγλική που δεν σας τη λέω, γιατί συμπαθώ τους Ιρλανδούς και όχι τους Άγγλους, που κυκλοφορούσε στα σαιξπηρικά κείμενα και που μου χαλάει το παραμύθι και δε γουστάρω. :))))

Αφιερωμένο στον Δημήτρη Καψάνη που το τραγουδάει υπέροχα!
Με όλη μου την αγάπη!!!

Και στις άλλες δυο Εσκιμώες του Δουβλίνου!
Τις πιο αβεντουρόζες τύπισσες στον κόσμο!
Με τρελή αγάπη! Τρελή όμως!