Kuando el Rey Nimrod - Sephardi Ladino Song

Vocals & arrangement by Farya Faraji. This is a song from the Sephardi music repertoire; the Jewish community that was expelled from Iberia at the end of the Reconquista, and settled around the Mediterranean, developping diverse regional styles based on where they settled.

This specific song is from Tangiers, Morocco, and was written by an anonymous author in 1890. Different songs using this text, or similar ones detailing the birth of Abraham have existed during the centuries, but this one in Maqam Hijaz is the most well known one.

My arrangement pays homage to the Moroccan-Spanish background of the song by mixing a Moroccan string section, percussions and oud with a Spanish guitar chord progression similar to Flamenco’s.

Lyrics in Ladino:
Kuando el rei Nimrod al kampo salia
mirava en el sielo i en la estreyeria
vido una lus santa en la juderia
Ke avia de naser Avraham Avinu.

Chorus:
Avraham Avinu, Padre kerido
Padre bendicho, lus de Israel.

Luego a las komadres enkomendava
Ke toda mujer ke prenyada kedara
si paria un ijo, al punto la matara
Ke avia de naser Avraham Avinu.

La mujer de Terah kedo prenyada
i de dia en dia el le preguntava (or demandava)
"¿De ke teneix la kara tan demudada?"
Eya ya savia el bien ke tenia.

En fin de mueve mezes parir keria
iva caminando por kampos i vinyas,
a su marido tal ni le descubria
topo una meara, ayi lo pariria

En akella ora el nasido avlava:
"Anda vos, la mi madre, de la meara,
yo ya topo kien m'alechara,
Malah de sielo me acompanyara.

Grande zekhut tiene el senyor Avraham,
que por él conocemos el Dío de la verdad.
Grande zekhut tiene el senyor parido,
que afirma la mitsvá de Avraham Avinu.


English translation:

When King Nimrod went out to the countryside
He was looking at heaven and at the stars
He saw a holy light in the Jewish quarter
[A sign] that Abraham, our father, was about to be born.

Chorus:
Abraham our Father, beloved father,
Blessed father, light of Israel.

Then he told the midwives
That every woman who was still pregnant
If she gave birth to a male child at once he will be killed
because Abraham our father was about to be born.

Terach's wife was pregnant
and each day he would ask her
"Why do you look so pale?"
She already knew the blessing that she had.

At the end of nine months she wanted to give birth,
She walked through fields and vineyards
She didn't tell her husband anything,
She found a cave; there, she would give birth.

At that time the newborn spoke:
"Walk away from the cave, my mother
I have already found someone who will take me away.
An angel from heaven will accompany me
Because I am a child of the blessed God."

After twenty days she went to visit him.
She saw in front of her a young man leaping,
Looking at the sky and (looking carefully/noticing everything),
In order to know the God of Truth.

Great merit has honorable Abraham
Because of him we recognize the true God.
Great merit has the father of the newborn
Who fulfills the commandment of Abraham our father (circumcision).