43. El infant cautivo (Çakum Effendi)

This romance (CMP H16) was popular among the Eastern Sephardic Jews (especially in Salonica and Sarajevo). It was documented in a manuscript dated 1794 (Attias 1973, no. 21). Haim Effendi recorded at least two different versions of this song (2008, CD III, no. 7), both longer than Çakum’s, whose version is extremely brief (compare versions recorded from oral tradition, Havassy 2007, Appendix, ES 106, BSG 089). Very little is therefore left of the romance’s narrative. However, the recording is musically rich, surrounded by instrumental interludes played by oud and clarinet. The melody in the ABCD form is characteristic of Sephardic romances.

– Aaa, carcelero y piadoso, ansí el Dio te dé la vida, amán

que me quites esta cadena, y aflojes el puñal, aaa.

Ya lo tomó el carcelero, se lo llevó en ciudades altas.

En las ciudades de Marsellia, amán, allí había tres doncellas, amán.