Sintid esta endetcha que quema el corasson A Judeo-Spanish epic poem in rhyme and meter, lamenting the brutality of invading Russians toward the Jews in Bulgaria

Sintid esta endetcha que quema el corasson
Un poema épico en judeoespañol para lamentar la brutalidad
de los invasores rusos hacia los judíos en Bulgaria

Michael Studemund-Halévy

Halevy.igdj@gmail.com
Institut für die Geschichte der deutschen Juden, Hamburg

Recibido: 29/05/2013 | Aceptado: 28/02/2014

Resumen

En el presente artículo se publica y estudia una kopla del felek en lettras rashíes i latinas acerca de la guerra ruso-turca y la destrucción de la comunidad judía de Karnabat. Los textos proceden de los Archivos Nacionales de Sofia y de la Biblioteca Muncipial de Plovdiv.

Palabras clave: Endecha, kopla del felek, Yosef Hayim Benrey, Albert Confino, Judezmo, Bulgaria, Karnabat, guerra ruso-turca, edición de textos.

Abstract

The article publish and studies a kopla del felek illustrating the Russo-Turkish war concerning the destruction of the Jewish community of Karnobat. The texts come from the National Archives of Sofia and the Plovdiv Muncipalo Library Ivan Vazov.

Keywords: Dirge, Kopla del Felek, Yosef Hayim Benrey, Albert Confino, Judezmo, Bulgaria, Karnobat, Russo-Turkish War, Edition of texts.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the Fritz Thyssen Foundation for financing my fieldwork in Bulgaria, and express my gratitude to: Municipal Library Ivan Vazov/Plovdiv (Dorothée Kiforova), National Archives/Sofia (Vania Gezenko) and Jewish National Library/Jerusalem (Ofra Lieberman).

CÓMO CITAR ESTE TRABAJO | HOW TO CITE THIS PAPER

Studemund-Halévy, M. (2014), Sintid esta endetcha que quema el corasson. A Judeo-Spanish epic poem in rhyme and meter, lamenting the brutality of invading Russians toward the Jews in Bulgaria. Miscelánea de Estudios Árabes y Hebraicos. Sección Hebreo, 63: 111-131.

1. The Sofia Municipal Archive

The Sofia Municipal Archive has not only a magnificent collection of Judeo-Spanish books, booklets und brochures of the 19th and 20th century housed as the Ladino Library in a special room of the archive1. but also has an extensive collection of Judeo-Spanish manuscripts in Rashi, Solitreo, Cyrillic and Latin scripts2. Among them are a large number of unknown stage dramas (pyezas de teatro), several collections of proverbs (refraneros), short stories (kuentos), novels (novelas), poetry (kantikas vyejas de boda) and historical songs (kantikas nasyonales, kantikas istorikas, kantikas de felek).

These manuscripts stem in part from donations by families which left Bulgaria after the Second World War, and partially from an extensive and ambitious research project of the Institute for Jewish Studies, founded in 1948. As head of this institute between 1948 and 1951, Dr. Asher Hananel, the last Bulgarian chief rabbi (1895-1964), arranged with the assistance of numerous Jewish Community members in all larger and smaller towns across Bulgaria to have more or less all the synagogue, Community and association libraries brought to Sofia. And with the help of a qualified, but nonspecialist volunteer team, had a rich amount of folkloric material (folktales, fables, historical songs, ballads, poetry, proverbs, memoirs, glossaries, etc.) collected throughout the country3. A substantial part of this unique collection also consists of copies of well-known collections of songs. Among the songs there are lengthy historical poems about the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-1878 still awaiting philological and historical analysis and examination.

2. The Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878

In the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, in which many Jews fought and died4, the ferocious Circassian auxiliary troops, the Moslem Bashi-bazouks5 and their Bulgarian accomplices, terrorized the countryside, torching villages, robbing and plundering the town of Karnabat6, inflicting all manner of outrages upon the Jews who were murdered or expelled in atrocious circumstances7. Many of them fled to Sofia, Shumla (Shumen), Burgas, Varna, Bucharest or Adrianopoli (Edirne), but most returned at the first opportunity. The Bulletins de l’Alliance Israélite Universelle reported that thousands of Bulgarian Jews found refuge at the Ottoman capital of Constantinople8. The cruelties of the Muslim mercenaries belong since that time to the repertoire of Bulgarian and Jewish memorial and historical literature9.

The newspaper haMagid of 1 August 1877 carries a report on the Western condemnation of the Russian troops, while defending similar acts, mostly perpetrated by the Bulgarians, in their righteous anger at centuries of suffering that was their lot at the time. The Hebrew newspaper haLevanon10 quotes a telegram by Lord Derby, who complains about the Russian behavior towards the Muslims11. Similar reports can also be found in the Jewish and Judeo-Spanish press in the Balkans and Vienna12. Bulgarian Jews who experienced the horrors of the Russo-Turkish war 1877-1878 wrote poems and vivid reports describing their bitter experiences.

2.1. The memoirs of Albert Confino

Albert (Abraham) de Eliezer Confino (1866-1958) was a teacher, principal, and school inspector in the Alliance Israélite Universelle. Born in Karnabat, he was sent along with his brothers to attend the Alliance school in Edirne (Adrianople), in Ottoman Turkey. He became later Director of the Alliance schools in Isfahan, and general inspector of all the Alliance schools in Persia13.

In his highly readable memoirs, published in 2005 (?) by his grand-daughter Maryse Choukroun14, he gave a detailed and vivid picture of the Russo-Turkish War15:

On a Saturday in February 1878 [Tevet-Shvat] 5638], the order was issued to evacuate the city [Karnabat] immediately the following morning [12-13]. Already that night people heard the deafening roar of the cannons. Now the word was: save yourself if you can. The Turks had seized control of all means of transport, so that the unfortunate Jews were forced to leave the city on foot, along with some scant belongings [...] A Turkish friend of my uncle who lived in Constantinople had provided us with an ox cart, and my grandmother, an aunt, my cousin sick with typhoid fever and I squeezed onto the cart. We wanted to get to Burgas, to the Black Sea16. We had hardly left the city when we saw the Jewish quarter ablaze, going up in flames. [37-38]. The Turks had set fire to it, so as to prevent our silo full to the top with grain from falling into the hands of the Russians [...] We heard shots being fired from all directions. Marauding bands, almost always Circassian mercenaries [104-106], who lived exclusively by looting. They came riding in from everywhere on small horses, they shouted and tried to frighten us by their screams. They forced us to give them our possessions [...]. Whoever refused was whiplashed and forced to give up their belongings, or beaten with the butt of a bayonet rifle. [...] In the evening, we reached a small, abandoned town [95] where we spent the night. [...] We departed the next morning [100]… Since the Circassians had already robbed us of our gold, silver and jewelry, now they took our rugs, linen, clothes and kitchen utensils. On the fourth day, a Circassian came toward us. As soon as he saw my sable fur coat, he ordered me to take it off. This child will not survive the cold, my grandmother said to him, can’t you see that the child is still so small? What do I care, answered the bandit. I have a son his age, the fur coat will fit him like a second glove. I had to obey him and spent the rest of the journey wrapped in an old blanket that the bandit did not want. On the eighth day, our ordeal came to an end. In Burgas, our parents were waiting for us [109-110]. We spent a week in the bitter cold in a tent at the harbor and waited for a sailing ship that was to take us to Constantinople17.

Similar episodes of the Russo-Turkish war, supplementing Confino’s memoirs and the poem, can be found in Hebrew and Judeo-Spanish newspapers and historical novels, for example:

a) Mal grado que no duro mucho, siendo en el ano 5637 (1877) ya se empieso la gerra Turca-Rusa en el mes de Mayo ya se empieso a bombardearse Nicopolis, y callo que todas las familias Israelitas junto con el huieron de alli a Plevna [...] Todas las familias puederosas que gosaban de la fortuna, se huyeron, y quedaron todas las familias pobres en grande miseria [...] Viendo el que la gera se estaba enforteciendo, penso en si loque es de hacer por rescatar a esas familias? Si se van encerrar en Plevna van a murir de hambre [...] rogandole por las familias israelitas pobres a que les diera carros grates, por transportarlas a Sofia, y con mucha laseria prospero a tomar 120 carros, hizo cargar a todas esas familias y el tambien partio junto con ellos, (ver en el jornal Hamagid No. 46 [28 november 1877, 413] del ano 1877), hasta que vinieron a la Orchanie, ese veaje les duro de 1-a-5 dias por camino, con todo que fueron acompanados de los soldados yagados torna las miserias que somportaron ellos por el camino de parte de los Cherkieses son inumirables»18.

In 1878, it was reported that hundreds of Jewish refugees from Bulgaria escaped to Istanbul by the skin of their teeth (b-c), but most returned at the first opportunity19. Upon their return, however, many suffered from anti-Jewish attacks instigated by the Christian population, the Russian troops, and from their association with the vanquished Turks (d-e)20:

b) Nosotros arivimos a Kosta en el kavo de el mez de Shevat, i el poderozo Dyo nos aparejo la santa Aliansa por protejadera21.

c) Una noche yego un navio kon fondo derecho, segun los navios ke azen el servisyo en el Danubio. Este navio era yeno de emigrados de Burgas i sus entorno (Izak Gabbay, 1909: 272)

d) Este fue al venten dia ke salimos a Kostan ke partimos por Karnabat, onde vimos nuestras kazas robinadas […] nuestra kehila de Karnabat ke era una de los mijores en la Rumelia, la derokaron fin el fundamyento, tomaron sus tablas, levantaron sus pyedras de marmol i se yevaron fin los fyeros de las ventanas (Benrey, s.d, p. 6).

e) Mais à la suite de tous ces évenements politiques, les affaires de mon pere avaient périclité et force nous fut de rentrer tous a Karnabat. Adieu veau, vache, cochon, couvée! Plus d’école, plus d’études! On devine mon état d’esprit en reprenant le chemin de notre petite ville. Et comble de maljheur, en arrivant, de constater que tout le quartier juif avait été rasé, de fond en comble. Seule la synagogue avait été épargné, les Russes en ayant fait le dépot de munitions, La synagogue, mais aussi la plus belle maison, celle du Senyor Presente (Confino [2005]: 68).

2.2. Kantika de la guerra, 1878, oyida de Oroutcha la kriadera de Yohanan22

An unpublished collection of songs of the Arie family from Samokov23 contains over 100 unpublished historical poems (kantikas de felek) and folksongs (kantikas de boda). The collection includes the two copies of the Kantika de la guerra 1878 oyida de Oroutcha la kriadera de Yohanan (number 262, p. 46 [MS] and p. 60 [typescript]) from the Russo-Turkish War written in Judeo-Spanish and Latin script and published here for the first time24:

Russia Russia que es tou fantazia

Tchika es la Turquia asta la Bulgaria.

Dia de djoueves la ora esta quatro

Ya se van fouyendo desznoudos i descalsos.

Tambien las priniadas les toman los partos

I los van pariendo en medio los campos.

Mas no kedo ke dizir, mas al Dio bendizir

Vini mis ermanos mos daremos manos

Por las kriyatouras ke las van matando.

El pan ya poujo i a sech i medio

De yorar ya era las qué vinieron

Oyid estas komplas i de la pelea

De Tzaar ya mourieron viejos i mansevos.

Ya se alevantavan los siété reynados

Foursa para el tourko ya non le decharon25

3. Sintid esta endetcha que quema el corasson

The most important of these poems is an early Judeo-Spanish «epic poem in rhyme and meter, lamenting the brutality of invading Russians toward the Jews»26, written by the Bulgaria Jew Yosef Haïm b. Rey [ריי בן], from Karnabat (or Karnobat) in southeastern Bulgaria, about whose life nothing is known27. This poem, which is part poem and part prose divided into three parts, describes the suffering of the local Jews, in particular their flight from the Russian troops, fearing the consequences of its entry into the city28. The title of the only book of his known to us is the

איסטורייה קומפויסמה די יוסף חיים ן ריי די קארנאבט

Istorya kompuesma [!]29 de Yosef Hayim de Karnabat

[‘Historical poem composed by Yosef Haim b. Rey de Karnabat’]

Of this poem three slightly distincted printed versions (in Rashi letters) and two typoscripts (in Latin letters) are known. Poem and author were still known in Karnobat, Yambol and Burgas down into the 1940s30.

The first and second edition of the 8-page brochure «Istorya kompuesma» was, according to research by Elena Romero and Avner Perez, published after the Russo-Turkish War 1877-1878 in Rashi script by the well-known printer Yosef Baruch Pardo (1873-1950) in Plovdiv (Filibe). Yosef Baruh Pardo would then have been very young when he printed these editions31. In its valuable collection of Judeo-Spanish books, the National Library Ivan Vazov in Plovdiv has the only copy known to me of the second edition (edisyon segunda). According to the records in this library, the second edition was published in Plovdiv in 1890. According to the Bibliography of the Hebrew Book (BHB 0309327), the second edition was printed in 1900 in Plovdiv. According to the Bulgarian National Bibliography, a second (!) edition («Histori conpoesta de Josef Haym Benrej») was published 1934 by the Printing House Balkan in Plovdiv32.

The historical poem «Istorya kompuesma» (Sintid esta endetcha que quema el corasson) is a dirge-like kompla (hebr. kina) or kompla del felek (tk. destiny, dealing with historical events, current affairs and welfare)33, that commemorates the plundering of the town of Karnobat, the exodus of its Jewish inhabitants to Istanbul and the return to Karnobat, is a particularly impressive ego-document in which the writer and witness are continuously present in the writing and as describing subjects.

In the following, I seek to establish the dating of this early publication in Judeo-Spanish from Bulgaria to the year 1878, utilizing previously unknown documentation.

3.1. Editions

In 1999, Avner Perez published his short article «Koplas del Felek sovre la suerte de los djudios de Karnabat» in the journal Aki Yerushalayim in Jerusalem, containing six verses [verses 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7] of the Istorya kompuesma, consisting of three parts34: In a short historical introduction, Perez states, without enumerating reasons, that Yosef Haïm Benrey published the second edition he was in possession of had appeared in Plovdiv already in 1881:

Tenemos en muestro poder la fotocopia de la segunda edision de este livro imprimido en la impremiria Yosef Baruh Pardo de Filipopoli al deredor del anyo 188135.

In support of this date, he mistakenly refers to the sparse data of the last page of the small pamphlet: Imprimeria de Yosef Baruch Pardo Filipopoli – Segunda edisyon (Printing press of Yosef Baruch Pardo, Plovdiv. 2nd ed.), which does not give the year of publication either of the first or second printing. The printer Yosef Baruch Pardo, who published numerous books in Judeo-Spanish and newspapers such as El Dia (the mouthpiece of the Zionist movement even before the first Zionist congress) and haShofar, would have been five years old when Jews fled from Karnobat! It cannot be ruled out that the first edition was not published by Pardo, even though according to the data in the BHB, the first of the 50 books and newspapers published in Judeo-Spanish in Plovdiv did not appear until 1895 (Statutos de la Sosyeta Shevet Ahim, BHB 0309293)36. The first book published by Pardo’s press according to the BHB appeared in 1897 (Appelo ala djuderia i a sus ijos fieles, BHB 0319962)37. Between 1897 and 1927, Pardo printed 19 books and newspapers in Judeo-Spanish (such as El Dia [1897] and haShofar [1927])38.

In 2007, the Israeli historian Zvi Keren placed the year of publication of this poem to 1893, without verifiable proof39. Unfortunately he does not indicate what editions cited in the research literature were available to him (presumably the manuscript housed in the Sofia Municipal Archive).

In 2008, Elena Romero likewise published this copla in her excellent, large anthology Entre dos (o más) fuegos. Fuentes poéticas para la historia de los sefardíes de los balcanes40. In contrast with Perez, she included all 25 verses of Part I and dated the second edition of the brochure to sometime after 1878:

Version aljamiada publicada en un librito Historia comfuesma [sic!] de Yosef Hayim’n Rey de Karnobat [...] segunda edición (s.d., d. 1878)

Elena Romero corrects the text published by Avner Perez and like him, does not deal with the author.

Between 2004 and 2011, together with Gaëlle Collin I visited dozens of libraries and archives. Among the valuable books and documents on the history of Bulgarian Jewry, today housed in the Sofia Municipal Library, which were able to film, scan and photocopy almost in their entirety was also two typewritten manuscripts of the Istorya kompuesta by Yosef Haim b. Rey (Collin & Studemund-Halévy 2007; 2009). The typewritten manuscript consists of eight pages, numbered 2 to 9. The second page begins in its upper half with a five-verse Cantiqua by Aron Issac Daniel from Nikopol. The Istorya komfuesma begins in the lower half of the same page. It comprises three parts and its structure is largely the same as the original.

[Parte primera], 2-5 (26 verses: 2 couplets, 12 quatrains, 12 quintains); [Parte segunda], 6-7 (prose text, 5 parts); Parte tresera, 7-9 (12 quatrains). The final page (9) ends with a four-line Cantiqua41.

Numerous typographical errors make it somewhat difficult to read the text: destruimineto recte destrumiento (2); estrmession recte estremission (6); never recte bever (14); principio recte pricipio (14); sentencia recte setensia (37); seto recte esto (11), etc. The transcription has many irregularities and apparently was not corrected by the writer, who was not proficient in the Rashi script: cae/calle; elos/eyos; hue/fue; indetcha/endetcha; no/non, etc; along with a large number of inconsistent transcriptions: atemacion, esparticion, membracion vs. abrigation, consolation, espartition, revolution. The text contains a number of non-Judeo-Spanish elements, including eleven Turkish words, fourteen Hebrew words and one word from Bulgarian:

(tk) aman, bogo, çapa, konak, orman, saltanat, saman, soymak, tel, tepe, yağma

(hb.) beemot, hasidim, humot, kahal, kaparat-avonot, mishim (?), shvat, shishim (?), tevet, yom, zadiqim, zeher, zizit

With the exception of the first few line of the manuscript in Latin script – which begins with Sintid esta endetcha que quema el corasson and not Oid esta endetcha que quema el corasson, as tradition demands42, along with two other textual changes, all the variants are due to smaller errors in transcription and a number of typographical errors! The complete edition of the 25 verses by Elena Romero, including many historical and linguistic annotations, differs only in a few places from the manuscript version of the Istorya komfuesma, part I, published here for the first time, aside from the numerous typographical errors in the manuscript. Here several examples:

• sintid (MS) / oid (Romero)

• en el saman (MS) / dientro saman (Romero)

• lugar mauyavan (MS) / lugar fuyiban y maullaban (Romero)

• se derite el corasson (MS) / se deslie el corasson (Romero)43

Below are several excerpts from the 25 verses partially transcribed by Avner Perez (in brackets and italics, the version of Perez; in brackets and bold, the 25 verses transliterated and adopted to the norms of the journal Sefarad by Elena Romero). Comparison of the Latin script version with the transliterations by Perez and Romero shows to what extent the latter deviate from the pronunciation of Judeo-Spanish common in Bulgaria.

1 Sintid [Oid; Oid] esta endetcha [endetcha] que quema [kema] el corasson [korason; corazón]

2 Del destruimineto [destruimiento; destruimiento] de Carnobat [Karnabat; Karnaḅat] i la venedura [vinidura; venidura] a Costan44;

3 Ayom [(B)Hayom; beyom revii] yom [-] 5 Chevat [Shevat; šebat] los teles

ivan [iban] arrivando [arivando; aribando]

4 Todos ivan [iban] yorando [llorando] i mauyando [maullando]

5 Si alos judios [djudios; ĵudios] caros [karos] estan dando

6 Todos estan con estr[e]mession [estremesion; estremición]

7 Djueves [G’Ĵueves]45 ninguno loque [loke; lo que] aser [azer; haćer] no [non] savia [sabía]

8 De este mundo nada no queria [kirian; querían]

9 Loque [loke; lo que] ganimos fin [fina; fina] agora lo vamos a deshar [deǰar] en un dia

10 Todo hoe [fue; fue] con depedrission [depredision]

11 Dia de Viernes46 en lugar de desayunar [dеśayunar]

12 Ir al telegraph [telegraf] que notenssia [notensia] nos va dar

13 Una alma en la sivdad [civdad] no [non] tiene que quedar

14 De principio [pricipio] fin [fina] alcavo [al cabo] se tiene que quemar

15 Todod [!] [Todo] fue etcho [hecho] en destruission [destruición]

16 Elos [eyos; H)Ellos] que sintieron esta mala desdetcha [desdecha; deśdicha]

17 Todos tomaron yoro [lloro] i [y] indetcha [endecha; endecha]

18 Como [komo] se va aser [azer; haćer]], ermanos [hermanos], esta grande etcha [echa; hecha]

19 De los cielos [sielos] nos callo [kayo; cayo] esta filetcha [felecha; filecha]

20 I esto nos vino por afriission [afriición]

21 Viendo esto todo los djudios [ĵudios] empessaron [empesaron] a yorar [llorar]

22 Estas criaturas [kriaturas] como [komo] mo las [kon ke molas; con que mo las] vamos a yevar [yevar]

23 A la bura [ala bora; a la bora] i [y] a la tempesta non [no;no] es cosa [koza; cośa] de somportar

24 Esto es porque [porke] isimos [izimos; hićimos] al Dio araviar [arabiar]

25 Estos [esto; esto] es una grande amargassion [amargasion; amargación]

26 Zahor [Zeher; Zéjer] para esto ya tiene que quedar

27 De las butiquas [boticas] las ropas ya empessaron [empezaron] a transportar

29 Por aqui los ladrones ya empessaron [empezaron] a soydear [soidear]

30 Ninguno de la sivdad [civdad] non [no; no] se tiene que menear

31 Esto fue el aunamiento de atemassion [atemación]

32 Hassidim [ḥasidim] i [y] zadiquim [ŝaḍiquim] todos ivan [iban] yorando [llorando] i [y] mauyando [maullando]

33 Por las calles or/I [y por] las plaças [plazas] ivan [eran] andando

34 Mirad [Mirá], ermanos, esto por membracion guoadraldo [guadraldo]

35 Por caparat d‘avonoth [por kaparat ‘avonot] somportaldo

36 I esto nos vino por affriission [afriición]

37 Tevet [Tebet] sin entrar la sentencia [setencia] fue dada

38 Entera la sivdad fue quemada

39 I ala yahma [yagma] fue dada

40 Una sivdad [civdad] como Carnobat [Karnaḅat] fue desmembrada [deśmembrada]

41 Todo fue con destruission [destruición]

42 Yo vos dire que al nueve [9 de] Chevat [šebat] fuimos salidos

43 De la bura [bora] i del [y el] frion [!] fuimos oprimidos

44 I [y] de los tcherquieses [cherquieśes] fuimos destruidos

45 Tchicos [chicos] i [y] grandes fueron [estuvieron] etchando djimidos [ĝemidos]

46 Todo que [quere] guadrado por membracion

47 Ya salieron de la sivdad [civdad] minim i chichim [ŝiŝim]

48 Fin que arivimos [aribimos] todos a la michim [mešesí]

49 Ya mos escarvaron [escarbaron a todos fina] asta el zizith [šišit]

50I [y] seto [esto nos] fue una affriission [afriición]

51 Mas vo [vos] contar [contare] cosas mouy duras [cośas mouy duras]

52 Mujer con siete i otcho [7-8] criaturas

53 Suviendo [subiendo] i [y] abachando [aḅaǰando] por tepes [de tepe] i [y] alturas

54 La nieve era pico de onduras [honduras]

55 Para esto no pueda aver [haber] afalagassion [afalagación]

56 Ya salieron todos con al guayas [alguaya]47 i [y] yoros [lloros]

57 Todos con las criaturas en los hombros

58 Coalos [cualos] atados muntchos [munchos] con bogos

59 No [non] valio la plata [las platas] i [y] los oros

60 Para esto non [no] abasta [aḅasta] ni consolation [consolación]

61 A Duvandji [Duanĝi] vinimos, un conak isimos [hićimos]

62 I [y] por descanssar [descansar] nos assentimos [asentimos]

63 Ni aguoa [agua] para never [!] [beber] non topimos

64 De sintir [sentir] esta mansia [manćia] se derite [deślie] el corasson [corazón]

65 Cada uno en la tempesta andavan [andaban]

66 Por cuvrir [cubrir] enriva [enriba] una coltcha [colcha] se tomavan [tomaban]

67 Las criaturas frion [!] [frio] i [y] tempesta no reyevavan [reellevaban]

68 Por un pedasso [pedazo] de pan la alma davan [daban]

69 Guoay [Guay] de tala afriision [afriición]

70 Una mujer vieja se murio en el campo en el orman

71 Empessaron [empezaron] a gritar aman [hamán]

72 All cavo [cabo] la enteraron en el [dientro del] saman

73 Por non [no] aver [haber] ni tchapa [chapa] ni echhoela [ešhuela] ni [!]

74 Ni ningun atrificion [atrefición]

75 Esto que vos conti non [no] es nada de nadas

76 Uvo [hubo] quen decho [deǰo] en el campo criaturas regaladas

77 En el campo las decharon [deǰaron] solas [solas y] assoladas [asoladas]

78 I [y] las madres fuyeron de la revolution [revolución]

79 Ya salieron de Carnobat [Karnaḅat] todas las humoth [umot]

80 De una mujer vieja le yevaron [llevaron] del caro las beemoth [beemot]

81 La decharon [deǰaron] los hijos dispues [después] de tanta amor

82 La decharon [deǰaron] solica sin abrigation [aḅrigacion]

83 Criaturas con muntcho [muncho] saltanat caminavan [caminaban]

84 En el campo solos esclamavan [esclamaban]

85 Las madres por otro lugar mauyavan [fuyiban y maullaban]

86 De sintir [sentir] esta mansia [manćia] yora [llora] el corasson [corazón]

87 Aquellos sefer-toroth [sefer torot] que en el Kaal [cahal] los aparavan [aparaban]

88 En medio del campo los ladrones los espedassavan [espedazaban]

89 Non [no] sea que ayga [hay] plata guadrada miravan [miraban] i [y] buchcavan [bušcaban]

90 De sintir [sentir] todo esto como no se atriste [atrista] el corasson [corazón]

91 Ninguna mansia [manćía] como esta non avria [habría]

92 La caye [cae] entera arastando de livriria [librería]

93 Los goyim de ellos muntchas [munchas] papeleras asian [harían]

94 De sintr [!] [sentir] esta mansia [manćía] de desliyi [deślie] el corasson [(el) corazón]

95 Muntcho [muncho] mal travimos [trabimos], fin Aytos asta que arivimos [aribimos]

96 Padres, hijos i hijas nos pedrimos

97 Esta notche en [-] Aytos dormimos

98 Del frio i [y] de manquansa [mancanza] de cuvierta [cubierta]

99 Se entezava [entesaron; enteśaron] el [de] corasson [corazón]

100 Ya salieron de Aytos demaniana [de mañana] matrana

101 Todos demandando si no [lo] vitech [viteš] a mi ermano [hermano] or [o mi] ermana [hermana]

102 I [que] caminavan [caminaban] en el frio i [y] la yelada

103 Todos disian [dećian] no savemos [sabemos] de esta espartition [espartición]

104 De Aytos passaron [pasaron] a los tcherquiesses [cherqueśes] encontraron

105 A uno a uno por estrena los passaron [passaron]

106 Fin el [un] aspro que tenian les tomaron

107 Esto fue el soydeamiento [soideamiento] de atemacion

108 Todos esparsidos [esparćidos] en los campos [el campo] como la [!] [las] urmigas [hormigas]

109 Todo fue fin que vinimos a Burgas [Burgaś]

110 Esperando sus criaturas que vinieran [venían] al lugar

111 I [y] esto fue grande esparticion

112 Todos caminimos en los campos [en el campo] como las aves

113 Vente dias por la mar [por mar] muertos de ambre [hambre]

It is thus easy to answer the question as to whether the manuscript goes back to a written or an oral source. Most probably the typewritten manuscript is a transcription of the Plovdiv edition, with numerous errors. Consequently, the datings suggested by Perez, Keren and Romero (of the first and second edition) cannot be supported. But when and where was the first edition of the Istorya kompuesta published, of which to date there is no known extant copy?

4. The 1878 edition

We are grateful to Max Menahemov48 for an early reference to what was probably the first printing. In an short essay in the commemorative volume for the outstanding Bulgarian historian and Hebraist Salomon Abraham Rosanes (1862-1938)49, he places the publication of the book in the year 1878. Writing in Bulgarian in his sketch of Judeo-Spanish literature, he mentions the young Jewish writer Yosef Benrey and the epic poem he had published in 1878 in Tsarigrad (Istanbul)50 under a longer and quite different title (in Rashi script!):

איסטורייה קומפויסטה די הבחור והשוב יוסף ריי די קארנובאט

הין בוז די היכה

Istorya kompuesta de haBahur veHashuv Yosef b. Rey de Karnobat
en boz de eha

[‘History composed in the manner of the Book of Lamentations
by the young and distinguished Yosef b. Rey from Karnobat’]

On Benrey and his Istorya kompuesta, Max Menahemov comments:

In 1878, after the end of the Russo-Ottoman War, a certain Yosef Benrey, a Jewish representative of the new era, published the poem «Istorya kompuesta de haBahur veHashuv Yosef b. Rey de Karnobat en boz de eha». There he describes the conquest of the city of Karnobat by the bashi-bazouks and the Russians, and the sufferings of the victims. The book of eight pages is an epic poem, a rhymed Jerimiade in three parts. Its literary value is mediocre, it mixes the important with the unimportant side by side. The main thing is that the lines rhyme. But for us the poem has important historical value, because it points to a growing new sensitivity for folk poetry. Benrey’s book was published in Tzarigrad [Istanbul], since at this time there were no Jewish printing houses in Bulgaria51. No other works by this author are known52.

Upon the whole and granting that Max Menahemov had seen the booklet, it may with certainty be concluded that the first edition of the Istorya compuesta was printed at Istanbul and not in Plovdiv, and the second edition between 1890 and 1900 in Plovdiv.

5. Glossary

afalagassion ‘consolation’.

afriission ‘hard deprivation, intense suffering’.

(al)guayas ‘lamentations, protests’.

aman (exclamation) < tc. aman, hb. Haman; bg. аман.

aspro < tk.-ngr. ‘small coin in the Ottoman Empire’.

ayom < hb. היום ‘today, this day, now’.

beemoth < hb. בהמות ‘domestic animals’.

bogos < tk. –ngr. ‘bundle of old clothes ‘.

bura, bora < ngr. βορράς ‘cold and violent northern wind’ bg. бора.

caparat avonoth < hb. עוונות כפרת ‘atonement of physical sins’.

caye ’street’.

chevat < hb. שבט ‘the fifth month in the Jewish calendar’.

chichim < hb. שישים ’seventy’.

conak < tk. konak ‘government house’; here: ‘halting place’ (tk. konak etmek ‘to make a stop on a journey’) bg. конак.

depredission ’ruin, total loss’.

Duvandji ‘Tundja river’.

echar guayas ‘to lament.

echhoela ‘short-handled ax’.

entezar-se ‘to be stiff by the cold’.

espedassar ‘to tear into pieces’.

estremision ‘terror, panic’.

filetcha, fletcha ‘arrow’, here: ‘comet’.

guayas see (al)guayas.

hassidim < hb. חסידים ’righteous men’.

humoth < hb. אומות ‘Gentiles, non-Jewish people’.

kaal < hb. קהל ‘community; synagogue’.

mansia ‘sorrow, grief’.

mantar [< gr.] meşesi ‘oak forest; bg. mеше.

mauyar ‘meow, bark, howl’.

mešesi < (?) tc. meşe ‘oak; meşelik ‘oak forest.

michim (?).

minim ‘heretics’ < hb. מינים ‘goyim’.

notenssia = notisya ‘news’.

or < Rumanian ori ‘or’.

orman < tk. orman ‘forest’.

papeleras ‘brown paper bag’.

saltanat < tk. saltanat ‘ostentation, spectacular’.

saman < tk. saman ‘straw’; bg. cаман.

sefer-toroth < hb. תורות ספר ‘torah scrolls’.

somportar, soportar ‘to stand’.

soydamiento < tk. soymak + sp. –miento.

soydear < tk. soymak, soydurmak ‘ransack, rob, strip bare, sack’; bg. cойдурдицбам.

tchapa < tk. çapa ‘hoe, mattock’.

teles < tk. tel ‘telegram’.

tepes < tk. tepe ‘summit’; bg. tепе

Tevet < hb. טבת ’the fourth month of the Jewish calendar’.

yahma < tk. yağma ‘loot’; bg. яма.

zadiquim < hb. צדיקים ‘pious men’.

zizith < hb. ציצית ‘one of the four tassels of the undergarment worn by Orthodox Jews’.

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Notas