“Sirmena” is a local women’s song from Matoneri, Kalambaka, in Greece. The name Sirmena is not literal but an acoustic variation; the lyrics themselves and the nature of the song, wandering from mouth to mouth over centuries, transformed its original title. It is said to derive from the phrase “It rings out here, it rings out there, the heavens resound” — referring to the sound of the Easter bell that announces “Christ is Risen” in every neighborhood. Written in Greek — a unique exception within a primarily Vlach-speaking community — it is likely attributed to a educated woman during the Ottoman period and survives in fragments through oral memory. It is sung at dawn on Easter Sunday, right after the Divine Liturgy, as a remembrance of a historic raid during which men and girls were captured and taken to Ioannina. Within the abrupt verses lie the lament of captivity, the plea for deliverance and freedom, and simultaneously the eruption of Easter joy. Cries, vocal breaks, and guttural modulations burst collectively from women’s mouths; they act as a ritual catharsis, a shared breath that unites the village, wards off sorrow, and leaves in the air an ancient message of freedom through the Resurrection.

In this artwork, this intangible vocal experience is transformed into a “concrete” poem-image. Successive lines—threads—emerge from a common point, oscillating and breathing like the timbres of a polyphony, converging again in a shared space. Each verse is broken into small “vocal bursts” (letters and syllables) that move freely along the curves, echoing the exclamations, vocal cracks, and overlapping voices of the singers as they float through the ether—just as they have traveled for centuries in this place—until they reach even the farthest listener and convey the song’s history.

The project also has a digital interactive existence, which can be accessed at: sirmena.alasu.works