Bertsolaritza and basque cider

13/12/2024

"Bertsolaritza", Basque oral tradition and natural cider

It is said that bertsolaritza (Basque oral tradition) and cider have always been closely related and there is a reason for that belief. In fact, the old bars were cider houses in all the corners of Euskal Herria, and bertsolariak sang bertsoak there all the time. Furthermore, cider was made in all the farm houses, and during the tasks that were done to make the cider, the women and men who made it used to create bertsoak on that topic, on the environment of the cider houses and on the cider itself. An example of this is the first publication of Sagardoaren Graziya, a prolific book of bertsoak edited by the Auspoa section and directed by Antonio Zabala.

The book collects verses from bertsolari Ramón Artola (1831-1906). The first bertso says this:

Bedeinkatua izan dedilla

Sagardoaren graziya

Bai eta ere kupira gabe

Eraten duben guziya;

Erari honek lagun askori

Ematen dabe biziya

Hau gabe egotia da

Neretzat penitentziya

Translation: Blessed are the cider and all those who drink it without shame, this drink gives life to many, for me it is a penance to live without it.

Nowadays you can still hear the bertsoak in the cider houses, but that custom of singing both in cider houses and in bars is somewhat lost. But it is true that some of the Gipuzkoan Bertsolari Championship celebrations will take place in a cider house, and that from now on many bertsoak will be sung alongside the kupelak (barrels). And the great Udarregi perfectly summarizes this in the bertso released at the beginning of a bertso session with Pello Errota.

Pello Errota:

Berez kupi gaitzala

guziyon jabiak,

ta eman ditzaigula

abillidadiak;

orain astera guaz

predikadoriak,

beñe kolejiyuan

ibilli gabiak

Translation: May our Lord have mercy on us and give us skills, now we are going to be preachers, without ever having gone to school.

Udarregi:

Asiera eman du