Isaac Algazi
59. La reina de la gracia (Isaac Algazi)
Eastern Mediterranean Judeo-Spanish Songs from the EMI Archive Trust (1907-1912)
La reina de la gracia
This is a love song in makam Nihavent and usul Devri Hindi (7/4). The poem was written by the journalist and poet Nessim de Yehudah Pardo, ca. 1880 (see Galante 1937, p. 350). According to Galante (p. 164), Haim Alazraki composed the music (see no. 58 above). The French musicologist Eugene Borrel (1924, p. 168) notated this song in 1900 from the composer and singer from Izmir Shem Tov (aka Santo) Chikiar, Isaac Algazi’s mentor. Hemsi (1995, no. 85B) published two versions of this song, one of them copied from Galante’s publication. This early recording of La reina de la gracia has an additional stanza which is missing in the later recording from 1929 (Odeon LA 202786a) released by Seroussi (1989, no. 30). The Jews of Izmir were very fond of this song, which remained in their memory until the late twentieth century. Amnon Shiloah recorded it from Esther Morgues Algranati in Izmir in 1971, almost a century after its composition (NSA, Yc 477).
Reina de la gracia,
madre de la vivez
¿Onde que te topes
por verte otra vez?
Vo murir, vo murir
sin aquella contenter.
¿Onde que te topes
por verte otra vez?
La rosa se deja
ver, tocar y goler,
y tú tan cruela
no te dejas ni ver.
Mi vida prometo yo
por de ti saber.
¿Onde que te topes
por verte otra vez?
