64. El mancebo seboso + La fea y el viejo (La novia exigente) + Las camas altas (Sida Musafija)

A song of the şarki type combining various themes, all of them of serial structure, sung to the same melody. Three distinctive units appear in this recording: El mancebo seboso (stanzas 1-2); La fea y el viejo (sometimes also entitled La novia exigente; stanzas 3-5); and Las camas altas (stanzas 6-8). The theme of a young woman rejecting candidates for marriage offered by her mother (La novia exigente) is found in Hispanic sources (see Pedrosa 1993, pp. 206-238). In the extant oral sources, the three themes are often sung separately, but various combinations of them (sometimes with additional themes) are known: Attias 1972, no. 133 (from Salonica); PF 149/04, PF 220/14 (both from Bulgaria); Havassy 2007, Appendix, ES 132. The song is mentioned in an article in the Ladino journal El Mesajero (Salonica, 1939) cited by Bunis (1999, English part, p. 329, note 87). Surprisingly, the recording ends with the violin playing the first part of the Zionist song Hatikvah (see below, nos. 74, 78).

Amor hicites lindo mancebo,

me derretites como el sebo.

Amor de boca sale’l alma toca,

si l’amor se troca para mi’s la horca.

No quero madre marido viejo,

s’ech’a la cama parece un leño.

No quero madre marido gordo,

s’ech’a la cama parece un lonso.

No quero madre marido flaco,

s’ech’a la cama parece un gato.

Tu ‘stas echada en camas finas,

yo rabiando por las cusinas.

Tu ‘stas echada en almandrakes,

yo rabiando por los konakes.

Tu ‘stas echada en camas altas,

yo rabiando por las montañas.