Abre la puerta del kubush te besaré tus caras. - Dime de ánde sos tú? - De encima las montañas. A la montaña yo subí para matar dushmanes, el revolver por cabezal para que durman mis ojos. Los cielos tomí por papel la mar tomí por tinta los árboles por pendolas para scribir mis dertes.
Open the door of this nightmare, I will kiss your faces. - Tell me, where are you from? - From above the mountains. I climbed the mountain to kill enemies, the revolver on my head so that my eyes may sleep. I took the skies for paper, the sea for ink, the trees for pens to write my troubles.
From Morenika Izmirlia - Judeo-Spanish songs from Smyrna, 2020 This is a lyrical cantiga of disconnected stanzas, with Turkish words included in the text. The second stanza alludes to military service, since he has weapons (a revolver instead of a pillow) and is up in the mountains to kill enemies (dushmanes). The last stanza offers a poetic image, when he will write his pains (dertes) on the sky that will serve him as paper, the sea as ink and the trees as pencil.
This website was created by Orit Perlman with the collaboration and blessings of Dr. Susana Weich-Shahak in 2025