# Τράβα, ρε μάγκα και αλάνι



## Slavianophil

Dear Greek friends, can you help me to understand what the following lines mean:

Τράβα, ρε μάγκα και αλάνι
Tράβα για το Πασαλιμάνι 

Does the word μόρτισσα mean 'a female hooligan'?

Here is the context:


Έμαθα μες το Πασαλιμάνι 
Aγαπάς μια μόρτισσα, αλάνι

Τράβα, ρε μάγκα και αλάνι
Tράβα για το Πασαλιμάνι


----------



## ireney

You may be interested in this thread 
I hope it answers your questions  If not we can always expand on the matter


----------



## Slavianophil

Thank you, Ireney! The thread is very interesting indeed.

So, μόρτισσα means something like 'female magas'?

My knowledge of Greek is still very limited to put it mildly, and I have to ask you to translate for me these two lines:

Τράβα, ρε μάγκα και αλάνι
Tράβα για το Πασαλιμάνι 

I do not quite see, which meaning of the verb τραβώ is meant here. And what on earth is Πασαλιμάνι? Is it a port near Smyrna or Constantinople or Athens? And I haven't got a really good Greek dictionary, so I haven't found the word ρε.

Could you be so kind as to help me?


----------



## NotNow

Πασαλιμάνι is the name of a former navy base near Athens, but I think there are other locations in Greece with the same name.

One meaning of ρε is man or dude or shoot like in the expression, _hey man _or _oh, shoot. _It's a very mild expletive. 

I regret that I cannot be of more help, but my Greek is limited.


----------



## Slavianophil

NotNow, thanks a lot!


----------



## Traduita

Τράβα here means "go!" in a not-so-polite way.
 Πασαλιμάνι is part of the port of Piraeus. 
Μάγκας is an idiomatic expression I can't explain to you all by myself but it means a tough or macho guy (although it has a lot of other connotations as well_. 

Ρε is a colloquial form of address, like NotNow says, it is like dude or man or hey, which can be familiar or rude depending on the case. Here it is kind of defiant. 

Αλάνι is a boy and maybe older person that spends his life roaming the streets a lot, like a vagabond, maybe engaging also in illegal/semi-legal activities. Here I think it also has the parallel meaning of a person unstable in his feelings.

So, the speaker in the song is a girl who lives in Athens  who finds out that her lover is seeing another girl who lives in Pasalimani, in Piraeus, right? I won't attempt the translation but the meaning is this: "[Ok, since you want it like this], go to Pasalimani [to her] you who are / want to be a tough guy, a rascal  that won't settle anywhere". 

I repeat, this is an explanation, not a translation. Maybe we can come up with one tomorrow.


----------



## ireney

Link time!
Check this wikipedia page for "μάγκας"
Here you can see some pictures of Pasalimani

For the rest, Traduita's translation is not bad at all! Basically,"get out of here and just go to Pasalimani, you macho guy, you rascal".


----------



## Slavianophil

Traduita and Iriney!

Thank you very much! Now I understand what this song is about.

Special thanks for the links. I did know what magas meant, but found quite a few new interesting fact in the Wikipedia article.


----------

