Dimna Juda
Associations---Macedonia Serbia Crone Darkness Joy
Tapes Found On---Green Tapes Full Circle
Origin---Macedonia
Choreographer---traditional
Notes
Dimna Juda is one of the paranoid myths of the patriarchs. To the
modern world she is the old witch who will come, steal away with children
and tear them limb from limb as she laughs and plays in their blood. But
in truth Dimna Juda, like many another monster and demon of the modern
world, is but a paranoid vision of a deep spiritual truth, a truth which
carries wisdom and blessings. Yes, the Crone does come and take the child
into the forest of her life. And, yes, The Crone does chew the child's
bones and spit them out. But here the Crone is simply the path of life,
the force of living time. Tender spirits, we come into life in full sweetness
and innocence. And then life's initiations begin. By the end of the path
through this forest, the child, decades later, is but a quivering bag of
loose flesh and brittle bones. Along the way disappointment, disenchantment
and deep tearings of the heart have transformed the innocence into experience
and, if we pass the initiations, again into a new innocence.
.
The innocence of childhood is an unconscious innocence. As the
poet said, children in their sweet innocence may pull the wings off of
flies to witness their quivering. And then the spirit of the child meets
the Crone, Dimna Juda (much like Kali) and undergoes the Songs of Experience.
Finally, torn like the fly limb from limb, heart from soul, the human spirit
enters a new innocence. But this new innocence, the merging of the serpent
and the dove, a common symbol of the Mother Goddess cultures, does not
have the capacity to torture the fly. Our Hearts are torn and open.
.
The innocence of childhood is an unconscious innocence. As the
poet said, children in their sweet innocence may pull the wings off of
flies to witness their quivering. And then the spirit of the child meets
the Crone, Dimna Juda (much like Kali) and undergoes the Songs of Experience.
Finally, torn like the fly limb from limb, heart from soul, the human spirit
enters a new innocence. But this new innocence, the merging of the serpent
and the dove, a common symbol of the Mother Goddess cultures, does not
have the capacity to torture the fly. Our Hearts are torn and open.
.
see the glossary
.
Words in English
Dimna Juda1 built a city
on the mountain, on Vlaina.
The posts she drove
were all youths ready to be engaged,
were all youths ready to be engaged.
The wands she plaited
were all maidens ready for marriage,
were all maidens ready for marriage.
1 an evil wood nymph
Words in Native Tongue
/Dimna Juda, mamo, grad gradila./ 3
/na planina, mamo, na Vlaina./
/Sto je Kolje, mamo, pobivala.
se engeni, mamo, za glavenje/
se engeni, mamo, za glavenje.
/Sto je Plice, mamo, zaplicala.1
se devojke, mamo, za mazene/
se devojke, mamo, za mazene.
Repeat first verse.
1 The dialect of this song was misunderstood by
Tanec, and the words in their recording, which is transcribed here,
are not completely correct. This line should be
Sto je prake, mamo, zaplikala.
with the same traslation.
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