Mi Nuera, Mi Nuera 1

Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement: Y2854/8 
Referenced and notated in: La Boda Sefardi, Musica, texto y contexto, pg. 145, Editorial Alpuerto, 2007 Susana Weich-Shahak. 

"The Husband in Disguise" (El Marido Disfrazado), a ballad preserved among the Sephardic Jews of Alcazarquivir, Morocco. In the story, the mother-in-law tests her daughter-in-law’s fidelity by forcing her to sew and light the household fire. While the young wife works, the mother-in-law seizes the moment to tempt her with a handsome page who carries “flame”- a word that blurs the boundary between the fire needed for the hearth and the young man’s own burning allure. The bride rejects his advances, barricades herself in her bedroom, and collapses onto her bed - only to discover that the disguised page is none other than her own husband, who has collaborated with his mother. The rhythmic scheme consists of four binary units and one ternary unit, that is, 2+2+2+2+3, in 11/8 time. Text:

Text:
Mi nuera, mi nuera,   mi nuera garrida,
tejerís las cintas     de vuestras camisas
que vuestros iguales   ya las tienen tejidas
y tú, la mi nuera,    tapada y dormida.
-Yo no tengo flama    ni quien me la diera.
Por ahí paso un paje    que flama tuviera.
-Por tu vida, el paje,   dame de tu flama,
que una suegra tengo     que a voces me mata.
- Dame un besito      te dare de mi flama..
- Malhaya tú, el paje,    y quien te ha parido,
que por una flama,      y un beso me has pedido.
Metióse en su casa     como mujer honrada,
Cerróse la puerta     con siete candados
Con asiete candados y una chapa encima,
Metióse en la cama    y al paje encontrara.
- No me entró por puerta    ni por la ventana,
tú me l’has traído,   ya, la vieja mala.
- Yo te lo he traído   por ver si eras honrada:
este es tu marido,    tú, su mujer casada.

Translation:
My daughter-in-law, my daughter-in-law, my lovely daughter-in-law,
you will weave the ribbons for your shirts
that your peers have already woven
and you, my daughter-in-law, covered and asleep.
-I have no flame nor anyone to give me one.
A page who had a flame passed by.
-For your life, page, give me some of your flame,
for I have a mother-in-law who is shouting at me to death.
- Give me a little kiss, I will give you some of my flame.
- Cursed be you, page, and whoever bore you,
for you have asked me for a flame and a kiss.
She went into her house like an honest woman,
She locked the door with seven padlocks
With seven padlocks and a metal plate on top,
She got into bed and found the page.
"He didn't come in through the door or the window,
you brought him here, you wicked old woman."
"I brought him here to see if you were honest:
this is your husband, and you are his married woman."