A La Una Yo Naci - Sephardi Ladino Song

Vocals & arrangement by Farya Faraji, oud by Ido Romano and the Bym music group, with improvisations by the latter. This is a song from the repertoire of Sephardi music, that of the Jews expulsed from the Iberian peninsula after the Reconquista. They would come to inhabit the Mediterranean basin, principally the lands of the Ottoman Empire, therefore adopting the sonority and styles of various regional forms of music from that broad Mediterranean and Oriental continuum. This specific song comes from Smyrna in Anatolia.

The lyrics are in the Ladino language, an offshoot of Old Castillian that has become its own distinct romance language.

Lyrics in Ladino:
A la una yo nací
A las dos m'engrandecí
A las tres tomí amante
A las quatro me cazí.
Me cazí con un amor,
alma y vida y coracón.

Dime niña donde vienes?
Que te quiero conocer.
Si tú no tienes amante,
yo dejara de aprender,
alma y vida y coracón.

Yendo me para la Guerra,
dos bezos al aire di,
el uno es para mi madre,
y el otro para tí.

English translation:
I was born at one,
At two I grew,
At three I took a lover,
At four I wed.

Tell me girl, where do you come from?
I want to know you,
Tell me if you have a lover,
If not, I will love you.

Going off to war,
I throw two kisses into the air;
One is for my mother,
And the other is for you.
Soul, life, and heart.