Interpretation of “I got on a new boat” by Pozavli (traditional)

2026-07-07

For the present entry I have picked this wonderful rendition of a traditional song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_TywytZvdw. It is nominally about fishers at sea and thus pertinent to everyday life in many parts of Greece. The livelihood of plenty of locals is connected to the sea in some capacity, while others still are enthusiastic hobbyist mariners.

Before I elaborate on the substantive point of this song, I note how the challenge with traditional Greek music is to find a video with high image and audio quality. Usually you get some otherwise excellent performance whose recording leaves much to be desired.

Below are the lyrics, my translation of them, and further comments.

Σε καινούρια βάρκα μπήκα

Ερμηνεία:  Ποζαύλη
Στίχοι:    Παραδοσιακό
Μουσική:   Παραδοσιακό


Σε καινούρια βάρκα μπήκα
και στον Αϊ Γιώργη βγήκα

Είδα ναύτες παλληκάρια
που ψαρεύανε τα ψάρια

Έχετε ψαράδες ψάρια
αστακούς και καλαμάρια

Έχουμε δε τα πουλάμε
με τους φίλους θα τα φάμε

I got on a new boat

Singer:  Pozavli
Lyrics:  Traditional
Music:   Traditional


I got on a new boat
and to Saint George I went

I saw bold sailors
who were fishing the fish

Do you fishers have fish
lobsters and squids

We have but are not selling
we will eat them with our friends

This being a traditional song it embodies the ancient value of friendship in particular and community in general. The Greek tradition puts the collective above the individual, even though it still expects from the latter to be virtuous. Its collectivism tends to ameliorate structural inequalities as it does not encourage the individual to pursue enrichment or glory at the expense of others.

There is no equality, strictly speaking, as the innate differences in talent and potential are not subject to human institution. Though all members of the community are alike: they share the same living conditions. The culture promotes an ethos of loyalty to the community, which is expressed through the act of giving or sharing as well as reusing what is available.

Getting a new boat typically is a waste of resources in this regard. Why do it when (i) at least one of your friends or neighbours has a boat and (ii) they are eager to share it with you through some joint endeavour that reinforces your bonds? I experienced this myself. I did not have any property yet still went on a boat countless times. We would travel around and even go on multi-day sailing adventures. The only thing I could bring to the table was myself. No food, no money, nothing. My company was enough.

And this is not limited to boats. As kids we had the same with footballs, for example. One of the better-off boys in the neighbourhood had a ball, but he could not join us at all times because he was studying (yikes!). We would knock on his door and his mother would just hand us the ball while reminding us that her son would meet us later.

As such, the person with the new boat can be a symbol of arrogance. This is the kind of fellow who turned individualistic. Perhaps they are highly capable and this quality of theirs is inflating their ego because of the results it yields. Maybe their new boat is the fanciest one around and perhaps they now believe that they can buy anything they want. Money can buy happiness, they claim, as it is the conduit to experiences, though it does not buy you friends. Those who are around because of your money are neither friendly nor genuine: they will abandon you if they find a better opportunity elsewhere.

The fishers are not selling their fish because they are not thinking in terms of profit margins. They do not submit to the authority of the balance sheet nor are they playing what effectively is the sociopathic game of prevailing over others. For them the highest value is not of a monetary kind. It pertains to the beauty of spending time with your community: the tribe that accepts you for who you are; the tribe that knows you well and, therefore, does not tolerate your pretentiousness.

In the individualist world, nobody will congratulate you for being with your friends and for appreciating the little things in life like nature at-large. This is not a winning strategy if you care about the rat race of personal enrichment and the attendant high social status.

The community is all about trust, cooperation, and the containment of the self. It effectively runs counter to the idea of upward social mobility, of sacrificing everything in pursuit of prestige and of pretending to be better than everybody else if you do achieve some individualistic goal. It also does not reward the entitled “me, me, me” propensities. Those who do make some kind of progress are expected to share what they got instead of acting like they are special: to eat the fish with their friends, as it were.