Jerusalem!
What magical allure!
The name itself would have held no special meaning in our youth, had we not yearned for it out of the sense of mystery, of secrecy, of the supernatural.
That the word conveys; of the holiness that it radiates, of Divine exaltation.
We were unable to grasp, at the time, all that came from the Jewish city.
With such trembling, such excitement, we admired the tefillin that came from Jerusalem, the tiny siddurim (prayer books), the charity boxes, the emissaries, who came from the city of our dreams.
Yerushalayim!
Ke atraksion majika!
Esta palavra no egzersa eya mientres toda muestra djovena edad, sovre mozotros, ala kuala atavamos alguna koza de misteriozo, de mistiko, de sovrenatural.
Ke oriola de santidad, de superiorita devina.
Non entonava por mozotros todo lo ke venia de la sivdad Djudia.
Kon ke tierneza en los ojos, kon ke venerasiyon admiravamos los tefilin ke venian de Yerushalayim, los livrikos de tefila, las kashikas ke los viajadores trayiyan kon eyos, los shelihim ke venian de la sivdad de muestros esfueños.
Published in Eskarinos por la Palestina by Avraham Shemuel Recanati. Translation from the original Ladino in Hebrew script, adapted from: “The Longing for Zion in Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) Poetry,” an article by Shmuel Raphael in The Last Ottoman Century and Beyond The Jews in Turkey and the Balkans 1808-1945, by Minna Rozen (2002).
