"Vatzulna hataf al-alhan - Vehalleluya" (May the sound of the song come to me - Hallelujah)

With Songs They Respond: The Diwan of the Jews from Central Yemen
With Songs They Respond: The Diwan of the Jews from Central Yemen
"Vatzulna hataf al-alhan - Vehalleluya" (May the sound of the song come to me - Hallelujah)

Written by Shalem Shabazi

Performed by Yosef Ozeiri and Zekharia Yitzhak

With Songs They Respond: The Diwan of the Jews from Central Yemen
With Songs They Respond: The Diwan of the Jews from Central Yemen
"Vatzulna hataf al-alhan - Vehalleluya" (May the sound of the song come to me - Hallelujah)

Written by Shalem Shabazi

Performed by Yosef Ozeiri and Zecharia Yitzhak


Shira by Shalem Shabazi, signed Elshabazi Ry"t. It has ten stanzas, of which only the fifth and sixth are in Hebrew, and the others in Arabic. Here the parts that are sung are printed: the first stanza, the first verse of the second stanza, and the Hebrew stanzas (complete version, with translation, in Halevi: 331-3). The poem speaks of the tribulations of exile.

Yosef Ozeiri and Zekhariah Yitzhak sing in a responsorial manner, accompanied by drum and tin pan: Zecharia sings the opening blessing and begins the shira in Arabic, and Yosef responds from the second verse onwards, with Zecharia singing the opening and Yosef the closing hemistich throughout the song. They sing the sixth stanza only to the end of the tawshiḥ), and continue immediately with the hallel

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