Ya crecen las hierbas y dan de color, y éste, mi corazón, vive con dolor. Ya crecen las hierbas y dan de amarillo, y éste mi corazón vive de suspiro. Parióme mi madre en una noche oscura, ni gallo cantaba, ni perro ladraba. Solo la aguililla negras voces daba; parióme mi madre, crióme mi tía. Pusóme por nombre: niña y sin fortuna; parióme mi madre y echóme en la cuna. Con hierbas del campo m’hizo cama y cuna, púsome por nombre niña y sin fortuna.
The grasses are already growing and bring color, and this, my heart, lives in pain. The grasses are already growing and turn yellow, and this, my heart, lives with a sigh. My mother gave birth to me on a dark night, no rooster crowed, no dog barked. Only the hawk gave dark cries; my mother bore me, my aunt raised me. She gave me a name: a girl without fortune; my mother bore me and laid me in the cradle. The grasses are already growing and bring color, and this, my heart, lives in pain.
Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement: NSA Yc 2990/16
Referenced and notated in: Judeo-Spanish Moroccan Songs for the Life Cycle, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1989 Susana Weich-Shahak
Sephardic dirges, called endechas or oinas, were performed by semi-professional women called endechaderas or oinaderas. These songs have as their general topic situations in which death is their central theme.
This website was created by Orit Perlman with the collaboration and blessings of Dr. Susana Weich-Shahak in 2025