Coplas del Incendio Año de sesentös y cuarenta y cuatrö fuego en seś de kislev degradó muy alto porque tomimos por manto la ley de aquel źimán, olvidimos el šabat y que la ley amiga ella mos abriga. Baanovot què ésto fue negro empesiżo, de los cieloś abajó este negro gostiżo non quedó cörtijo onde había menuźá, quedimos sin camisa, sin techo y sin banco en medio los campos. Grande derrocamiento fue para el probe y el rico el guevir y el eznav todos a un pico; el governo rico, el rey Sultan Hamid, mandó muchos źabit que miren la mancía de la judería. Dádivas mandó el rey cinco mil ducados que miren d'arremediar todos los quèmados, los más entiznados sin tener valor la luvia y la hielor, en pies, muertös de hambre, ya moś abajó calambre. El Dio ya mos amostro Senial temeroso vergas de fuego ochó sin tener reposo pierdimos el goźo y el raḥatlik más y más'el keśatlik en las kišlás echados como peces salados. Vergas de fue cchó el Dió de los cielos a los chiquiticos quemó como los buñuelos viejos y mancebos en bajo asentad, los ojicos atentad: esto fue negra saña de parir en las möntañas.
The Copla of the Fire Year of six hundred and forty-four, fire on the sixth of Kislev rose up very high, because we took cover In the law of that time, we forgot the Sabbath, and that friendly law she is the one who shelters us. Because of these sins this happened, a black beginning, from the heavens came down this dark guest; there was no courtyard left where there was a mezuzah; we were left without shirts, without roof and without bench, in the middle of the fields. A great downfall it was for the poor and the rich, the noble and the humble, all struck equally; the wealthy government, King Sultan Hamid, sent many officers to look upon the ruin of the Jewish quarter. Gifts the king sent, five thousand ducats, to see to the relief of all those burned, the most blackened ones, without any strength, under rain and frost, on foot, dying of hunger, already muscles cramped. God has already shown us a fearful sign: rods of fire He threw, without rest. We lost our joy and our well-being, and more and more, our peace; cast out in the barracks, like salted fish. Rods of fire He cast the God of the heavens, He burned the little ones like fritters. Old and young: sit on the ground, see with your little eyes this cruel wrath was given because of (illegitimate) births in the mountains.
From Arboleras vol. 1, Sephardic cancionero and coplas oral tradition, 1996 This copla chronicles of one of the fires that struck the Jewish communities in the Balkans. The first line gives the date of the tragedy: the sixth day of the month of Kislev, a month in the Hebrew calendar corresponding to November or December, in the year six hundred and forty-four according to the Hebrew count — that is, 1903 in the Gregorian calendar. This historical identification is confirmed in the third stanza through the mention of Sultan Hamid, referring to Abdul Hamid II. The text attributes the fire in the Jewish quarter to the abandonment of religion and morality: adopting the fashions of that zimán (time), forgetting the Shabbat (Saturday), and neglecting moral conduct (referring to the “hidden births of unmarried women”). With an abundance of Turkish terms and some from Hebrew, the poem explains that, for all these reasons - baanonot (“for the sins,” from Hebrew) - the fire came upon all the houses of the Jews (identified by the mezuzah, the ritual amulet on their doors, from Hebrew), punishing both the guevir (“the rich,” Hebrew) and the eznav (“the middle class,” Turkish). Not even the dispatch of zabit (“policemen,” Turkish) to the Jewish quarter could save their raḥatlik (“well-being,” Turkish) from kesatlik (“economic hardship,” Turkish), forcing them to take refuge in kišlas (“tents” or “encampments,” Turkish). This version learned from a recording by Rosa Avzaradel of Rhodes, consists of six stanzas, arranged so that each begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet, a poetic technique used to write Jewish liturgical poetry.
This website was created by Orit Perlman with the collaboration and blessings of Dr. Susana Weich-Shahak in 2025