The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #22474   Message #243801
Posted By: Alice
17-Jun-00 - 12:36 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Sephardic Songs
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sephardic Songs
I just re-read your question, and apparently you do have the lyrics and need translation. Can you post the lyrics here? I am on the phone with my friend right now who is a canotor and has studied Ladino music and teaches Hebrew. "Yad" is the hand of God, out of the Hebrew language in a classical sense. "Yad" is also the name of a pointer used when reading the Torah (so you don't touch the scroll, not to damage it) and it hangs on the side of the Torah when it is wrapped up. "Ora" is a derivative of the word light, "or" in Hebrew. Ventana, being window in Spanish, a feminine word, "or" becomes "ora".
There is also a Yiddish song that translates to A Light In The Window. The light in the window is the woman lighting the Shabbat candles on Friday at sundown. The man goes to the synagouge, and since nobody used electricity in those days on the sabbath (shabbat), and still don't in Orthodox communities, the men would find their way home to the light in the window of the two sabbath candles burning.

Give me more details, and she can translate.

I just found more on a search of the net. Yad Anuga may not originally be Ladino, since it was written in Poland, first published in Vilna, which was the center of the greatest cantorial work ever, according to my friend, who has a PhD in Cantorial music. Because of the place it was witten, it would have been Ashkanasi, not Ladino. In the early days of the state of Israel, many Mediterranean Jews were already there before Israel became a modern nation. They spoke Sephardic Hebrew, and since this song became a popular pioneer song, that may be why you identified it as Sephardic. It is actually from Vilna, Poland, so it would not be Sephardic. Be that as it may, she will look for it in her music, and I will online.
She also says you may be interested that the roots of Ladino are Hebrew, Spanish, and Arabic. It is actually a recognized language on its own now. Yiddish has roots in German, Russian, Hebrew, and is recognized as a separate language. So, if a song is in Ladino, it is not truly macaronic, because Ladino is a language, not a mix of Spanish and Hehrew.

Here is what I found on the internet:
click here

THE TRANSFORMATION OF ZALMAN SHNEUR'S POEM "YAD ANUGA" INTO A POPULAR SONG

Hagit Matras and Yaacov Mazor

"Yad Anuga", one of Zalman Shneur's famous poems was first published by Y.H. Brenner in his literary periodical Hame'orer which appeared in London in February 1906, a fact that was not even mentioned by Shneur himself. The song can be found in print with the notes of its well-known melody and in the memory of many people since the 1920s. However, by reading through correspondence between Brenner and his friends during the first decade of the century we find that the song was then sung to a different melody. The present project was begun a few years ago to try to ascertain whether there actually was an earlier melody and whether it can still be traced.

The article outlines the path followed by the authors - unpublished correspondence, published material and ongoing field work, inter-viewing many people - that led them to the discovery of as close a version of the "first melody" as possible, and also to learn about the conditions which made possible the connection between the words and the melody of "Yad Anuga" in Vilna, near the time of the poem's first publication.

The authors concluded that "Yad Anuga" "behaved" very much like other songs of its time: it was written and set to music in Europe at the beginning of the century. It then migrated to Eretz Israel as the poem of a famous young Zionist, becoming widespread in a melody adopted from the local repertoire. Later it was transported back to its "homeland" in its new form which completely overcame the first melody, becoming one of the well-known "pioneer" songs, and as such it returned to Eretz Israel.

My friend's email, Suzanne Gorder, gorders@mcn.net
Her website http://www.mcn.net/~gorders/

mine
alice@aliceflynn.com