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MONASTIR FOLKLORE
The
Sephardic Jews of Monastir, 1839-1943. A web companion
to a new history.
Last
Century offers readers a unique opportunity to enjoy the
largely forgotten traditions of Monastir´s centuries-old
Sephardic folklore.
The
new history's collection of folksongs (kantigas), ballads
(romances), folktales (konsejas), and proverbs (refranes)
is one of the most varied ever published. The folklore
is presented in the Judeo-Spanish and in English translations
specially prepared by leading scholars for Last Century.
Eavesdropping
on a lost culture
In
Last Century´s 50-page appendix of Sephardic folklore,
readers will seem to be listening in on conversations
from a vanished world. These songs and stories were collected
by researchers who visited Monastir in 1927 and 1930.
The researchers sought out older people who grew up during
the mid-19th century, before folk traditions weakened.
In
the first lines of one kantiga, a mother and daughter
argue about the proper way to pursue a husband,:
| No
maldige la mi madri, |
Do
not curse, my mother, |
| No
maldige sin razón. |
Do
not curse without a reason. |
| Eye
cuandu ere mose, |
When
you were young, |
| Fizu
amor cun mi siñor. |
You
made love with my father. |
| Ya
lu fizi la mi fije, |
So
I did, my daughter, |
| Ya
lu fizi cun tiempus, |
I
did it over time, |
| Laz
fijiques di agore |
The
girls nowadays |
| No
querin noviu gidió. |
Do
not want a Jewish groom. |
| Cuandu
salin a la puerte |
When
they go out the door |
| In
todus miren pur cuniser. |
They
look to meet everyone. |
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another song, a new mother is comforted and the birth
of her new son is celebrated: |
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| Oy
qui muevi mezis, |
Oh,
what nine months, |
| Pasatis
d´istrichure. |
Of
discomfort you have had. |
| Mus
nasió un fiju |
A
son was born |
| Di
care di lune. |
His
face like the moon. |
| Bive
la paride, |
Long
live the child´s mother, |
| Cun
su criature. |
With
her newborn. |
Rare
15th century ballads
While
the kantigas reveal the social customs and rituals of
Sephardic life, the ballads or romances speak to the Sephardim´s
attachment to their ancestral home: Spain.
In
one romance, a battle is recounted:
| Ríu
verdi, ríu verdi, ríu verdi y amariyu, |
Green
River, Green River, green and yellow, |
| mahu
comu a lazeiti y pretu comu a la tinte! |
as
smooth as oil and as black as ink! |
| In
las tus tierres ajenes cayó gran cavayeríe; |
In
your distant lands, many knights were killed; |
| cayerun
duquis y condis y siñoris dun gran validu.
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dukes
and counts and lords of great worth. |
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