In English-language ballads, you often get a repeated line between verses that doesn't have much (or anything) to do with the narrative of the ballad, like "parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme" in "Scarborough Fair," or "lay the bairn tae the bonnie broom" (Old Blind Dogs version) or "lay the bent to the bonnie broom" (Pentangle version) of "Cruel Sister."
I see this in some folksong traditions in Colombia, but in the song I'm thinking of, "La Verdolaga," it feels like the repeated phrase is carrying an unspoken weight of meaning.
In English, verdolaga is purslane. It's an edible wild plant. You can also cultivate it, but it grows wild, pretty much all over the world. It's a ground cover with succulent leaves. Here's some of it growing on a traffic island in Hartford, Connecticut, where I happened to be last week.
You can find recipes for cooking it from all over the world.
Here's one from Turkey. Here's one from
Mexico.
In some places you can buy purslane in the market. But you can also go out and gather it anywhere. So this makes me think it's not what you'd consider a prestige food. It's something you can rely on in times of need. It reminds me of when I was out walking one time with a neighbor from Cambodia, and she picked a piece of lambs quarters, which grows wild by the roadside. "We used to eat this under the Khmer Rouge," she said.
So when Totó la Momposina, a famous folk singer in Colombia (who just passed away recently), uses the phrase "la verdolaga ... por el suelo" (the purslane ... on the ground) as her repeated phrase, and when the song starts out "Es bonita, y es bonita, ay la verdolaga, por el suelo" (It's pretty and it's pretty, ah, the purslane on the ground), and when the song goes on to elaborate how she plants it, dries it, sifts it, and when
then it goes on to say
Quién es que dice que yo (ay la verdolaga, por el suelo)
Poco va a ser la perdia (ay la verdolaga, por el suelo)[Who is it who says (ah the purslane on the ground)
That my loss will be little (ah the purslane on the ground)]
and
Niño blanco no me olvides (ay la verdola, por el suelo)
Tus lindas declaraciones (la verdolaga, por el suelo)White boy, don't forget me (ah the purslane on the ground)
Your sweet declarations (ah the purslane on the ground)
I think it's saying More.
Here's a cute picture of Totó la Momposina, artist uncredited, from
an online biography of her for children.
And here's a link to her singing
"La Verdolaga."There's no video with that, but there
is a video with this cover by P18, whose lead singer seems to be expressing some of the feeling I'm talking about
(here).
The power of song, man.
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