42. Adam the First Person

Leah Madai, Rivka Yehoshua. Recorded by Marcia Walerstein-Sibony, Moshav Aviezer, 1981; III-81

Ādāmāṟīśona sṟṣṭṭicca taṃburān lokaměllaṯṯinḍě nāthan
Tanikkŏru tuņayāyi kūṭṭěyuṃ avvāně sṟṣṭṭikkapěṭṭŏru nāthan    

1. Tamburan, Creator of Adam Harishon, You are the Lord of the world. 
As a support for Adam Harishon, Eve was created, O Lord.
Both Adam and Eve were made in a form like Your own form, O Lord.
And then You created the rest of the humans in the same form, O Lord.

2. Abraham and Itzhak and Yaakob and children, each member of Israel,
From the beginning until today, all sing the glory of God.
In God’s holy Presence stood Abram Abinu,  his faithful devotee.
And God gave blessings to all of His children—the People of Israel.
 
3. Then at the age of thirty plus sixty, Sarah gave birth to a son.
When at the age of one hundred years, Abraham had fathered the son. 

Aruḷappāḍāl ěṭṭāṃ divasattil mīlāyil periṭṭa iss-hākk makan
Iss-hākkābīnu tān vavāḍě vaḻikaḷil ěllaṯṯiluṃ naḍannu vannu

On the eighth day, as commanded, the name “Itzhak” he gave his son,
And Itzhak Abinu  followed his father, walking in all his ways.            

4. At the age of forty came Rivka-Umma  to his house as helper for him.
By God’s grace the crops they harvested multiplied one hundred times.  
When he was sixty, then came Yaakob,  who lived a holy life.
And then came his son Yoseph Saddik,  who went to Egypt land. 

5. With the Lord’s help and his own brilliance, he became the Egypt king.
Ephraim and Manasseh were born there, and beautifully they grew.
Then went Yaakob and seventy persons to see the Egypt land.
After a long time, he saw his son Yoseph, ruling as Raja there.

6. There in Egypt he and his children were living a happy life.
Seeing the children, Yaakob stepped forth and blessed the sons of Yoseph.
Then he and all of his children spent their lifetime in happiness.
But each of the following generations experienced suffering.

7. All of the children of Israel came into slavery. 
They lived hard lives as slaves under Pharaoh the Egypt king.
Living like that, each day passed, but then came help from the Lord.
God sent Moshe Rabban to save them, the People of Israel.

8. After four hundred years had passed, the People were redeemed.                
Over six hundred thousand strong, Israel left Egypt land.
As if on dry land, they crossed the Red Sea, while singing victorious praise.  
While heedlessly Pharaoh’s army pursued and fell down into the sea.

9. Filled with joy, the Israel children—the rescued People—danced.
They united on the Red Sea shore, and through the desert they walked.
To Sinai Mountain they were brought, the Torah to receive.
They received the Torah in forty days, taking it into their hands. 

10. Rejoicing they carefully kept the Torah and keep it even today.
All of us singing, rejoicing, and praising: bring us together, we pray.
O Tamburan, may we be united; bring us together, we pray;
To the holy land, Yerushalayim, lead us united now.

11. Show us, Tamburan, all that happened—everything from the past.
Now we all sing songs of praise; may Your holy Name be blessed.

This song was found in only four notebooks, all from Parur, where it probably was composed in the 20th century. According to Zacharia (2001, personal communication) it seems to be a modern song with no Malayalam Jewish linguistic markers other than the many Hebrew words. 

Its style, melody, and contents (a list of events from the Bible) are patterned closely after the more widespread eighteenth century song 41 (Ten Songs of King Solomon)—but it includes a number of other stories that are popular throughout the corpus of Malayalam songs.

Rivka Yehoshuah and Leah Madai, both from Parur, were living in Moshav Aviezer in 1981 when they performed the song for Marcia Walerstein-Sibony using the same two melodies that they had used to sing “The Ten Songs of King Solomon” and shifting to the second tune in the middle of stanza 3.