The following extemporary composed verses, bertsoak, by Xenpelar show us plain and clear the life of single men and women of the time. Loneliness, ungratefulness, contempt and unrewarded work are remarked amongst other matters.

This version is closely tied to the art of bertso singing, but improvised bertso lines by a well-known artist or even new bertso collections have quite often been adopted by the community as part of its cultural heritage and are spread by word of mouth becoming traditional pieces with their own local variations. The topics used by the bertso maker, his reasons to approach this particular subject and the way he does ii are not surprising at all (even if they could sometimes be biographical events, and in any case, issues that belong to the local environment of the town or village), because they are deeply rooted within the traditional world standpoint and the legacy of ancient songs.

Mutilzaharraren despedida
Frantzisko Petrirena Xenpelar, Gipuzkoa