'Los caminos de Serdekji', a medieval Spanish romance preserved by Sephardic Jews

After their expulsion from Spain in 1492, Sephardic Jews retained their ancient Hispanic culture in the places they went to.

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Sephardic Jews (a community today made up of two million people) emigrated to the rest of Europe, reaching as far away as Poland, and in many cases they went to North Africa, to the Ottoman Empire (settling in present-day Turkey), many of them living today in Israel, the United States, Argentina, Canada and France. With them they preserved a precious asset, their language, known as Sephardic, Ladino or Judeo-Spanish, which is spoken today by some 150,000 people in the State of Israel. And along with that language, they also preserved some oral traditions, which were transformed in the countries where they settled.

The poem "Los caminos de Serdekji" (The Ways of Serdekji) exemplifies these traditions. Emilio Villalba, an artist specializing in medieval music, notes the following about this poem:

Also known as "Los caminos de arena" [The Sand Roads], this Sephardic song is a medieval Spanish romance preserved in the oral tradition of Turkey, from which it was located in the Istanbul neighborhood called Sirkedji or Sirkici. Over time, this song would be transformed by Turkish musical expressions, adopting the Sureyya rhythmic scheme in 5/8 time and the Kurdi scale or makam. The neighborhood where the story takes place was characterized by its sandy streets during the first half of the 20th century.

Last September, Emilio Villalba and the group Sephardica, created by him and Sara Marina along with singers Irene Arévalo and Patry Cruz, performed this traditional Sephardic song at the Beth Israel Synagogue in Brasov, as part of the Early Music Festival held in that Romanian city. Villalba published the video for this song at that festival a few days ago:

If you'd like to listen to the entire Brasov concert, it's available at this link. I've found several lyrics to this poem. These are the lyrics in Judeo-Spanish sung in that video:

Los caminos de Serdekji
s′incheron de arena.
para pasar y vo tornar
y vert' a ti morena.

Morena tu, moreno yo,
ven mos frecuentaremos
si no te plase frecuentar,
ven, mos esposaremos.

Cuando ′mpezimos a frecuentar
con biras y gasoses
a la fin fue retirasión,
palabras de yelores.

El tu papa m'aprometió
campos y viñas.
Yo no te kero a ti, pasha,
ni por tapon de pila.

This would be the English translation:

The ways of Serdekji
were filled with sand.
to pass and turn around
and see you, brunette.

You're brunette, I'm brunette,
come, we'll hang out
if you don't like hanging out,
come, we'll get married.

When we started hanging out
with beers and sodas
we eventually quit,
words of ice.

Your father promised me
fields and vineyards.
I don't want you, lady,
not even as a sink stopper.