El infante cautivo (Carselero i piadoso, Karselero al piadoso, Carcelaro ipiadoso, Karselero ai piadoso, Karselero i piadoso)

This romance (CMP H16) was popular among the Eastern Sephardi Jews and was documented in a manuscript dated 1794. Haim's version contains the core of the narrative and is an example of his performance of a romance with highly embellished melodies without clear beat, that are characteristic of the Eastern Sephardi style of Greece and Turkey. The literary structure of the text (see the text below presented according to the conventions of romance scholarship) is obliterated by the musical structure, a feature noticeable particularly in the ending of the melody in the middle of verse 4 and in its new beginning on the second half of the same verse. The integrity of the text is also altered by the additional singing of nonsense syllables to complete musical phrases.

- Carcelero y piadoso, ansi el Dio te dé la vida,
que me quites esta cadena, que m'aflojes el puñale.
Ya lo tomó el carcelero, lo subió en ciudades altas.
En la ciudad de Marsillia alli había tres doncellas.
La una daba para Marsillia, la otra daba para purtugueses,
la más chica de ellas daba para mares altas. Ella que s'aparó a la ventana, la ventana de la mar,
vido vinir naves francas navegando por la mar.
Adientro de la nave hay un mancevo cantando una buena romanza.
Mas vale furtuna en tierra ni una hora por mares.