Elena is a name associated with catastrophic beauty - the kind that makes people start wars (as in the case of Helen of Troy) or break up their own families. There is a song “Elena, Elena" that is very popular in Bulgaria and it might very well be one of these Balkan songs that appear in every country and you can never tell where exactly they originated. The Bulgarian lyrics go, “Elena, Elena, child of the wild desert. Elena, only you I love.”
Our daughter is also named Elena, after Marina’s mother. Pepi plays the song “Elena, Elena” all the time at home and whenever we pass by street musicians, he asks them to play it. They all do, because it’s a classic that everyone knows.
Imagine our joy when Pepi, by pure coincidence, found a rendition of “Elena, Elena” in Romanes, by the King of Roma music Djemail Gasi. The sentiment remains universal in all languages: Elena shakes one’s world.
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