Irme quero

Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement: Y2931/1

A song of longing for Jerusalem, used to be sung on the night of the "mortaja", when people gathered in a feast to prepare the shrouds for the old people who prepared to go to Jerusalem, to live their last years there and be buried in the Holy Land (according to their belief and wish to be there on the day of Resurrection) The text, as in all coplas, is strophic. The refrain, repeated after each strophe, reassures the faith in God ( Patrón del mundo, ruler of the world) as the only source of comfort and care. The second strophe speaks about the the West wall (el kotel hamaaravi, in Hebrew), remembrance of the Temple, where prayers are held (una ziyará, from the Turkish: ziyaret ekmek and where all wishes are granted.
This copla also functions as a dirgr (kinah) for Tisha B'av, the day of mourning of the destruction of the first and second Temples.

Text:
Irme quero, madre a Yerushalayim,
y pisar las hierbas, y hartarme de ellas.

En el Kotel Maaravi hay una  ziara 
todas mis demandas ahí me s'afirmaban.

En El me arrimo yo, en El me enfigucio yo,
en el Patrón del mundo, en el Siñor del mundo.

Translation:
I wish to go, mother, to Jerusalem,
to tread upon the grasses and be filled with them.

At the Western Wall there is a place,
where all my prayers and wishes would be fulfilled.

In Him I take refuge, in Him I place my trust,
in the Patron of the world, in the Lord of the world.