Music > Compilations > Moshe Attias > Irme quiero, la mi madre - La choza del desesperado

Irme quiero, la mi madre - La choza del desesperado

 The Place of Seclusion of the Despairing Lover

The partial lyrics present despair: my mother, I want to go wander in the fields, to eat songs for bread, I will drink my tears instead of water, and in the middle of the fields I will build myself a castle. The despair and pain are emphasized with the addition of the Turkish word aman as an interjection between the repetitions of the two last words of each rhyme.

This romance served as a lamentation for Spanish Jewry. It is perhaps for this reason that it is not often sung, and is therefore rare.
The romansa was sung in the Spanish communities in the Ottoman Empire, but isn’t known in Morocco or Spain. However, the text of the request to the mother recalls ancient Spanish poetry and the uniform rhyme scheme is well-preserved. In Armistad’s catalog there are many versions of this song from the Balkans, but none from Morocco.

Song Lyrics

Irme quiero, la mi madre,    por estos campos me iré,
aman,  yo me iré.
Y las piedras de  aquellos campos     por pan me las comeré,
aman, las comeré.
Las lagrimas  de los mis ojos      por agua me las beberé,
aman, las beberé.
Por en medio de aquellos campos    un castillo fraguaré,
aman, lo fraguaré.