Le Lenti Di Sion

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La ienti de Sion: Linguistic and Cultural Legacy of an Early Thirteenth-Century Judeo-Italian
Kinah
Author(s): Joseph Abraham Levi
Source: Italica, Vol. 75, No. 1 (Spring, 1998), pp. 1-21
Published by: American Association of Teachers of Italian
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La
ienti
de Sion:
Linguistic
and Cultural
Legacy of
an
Early Thirteenth-century
Judeo-Italian
Kinah
his
study
focuses on medieval Italian
Jewry
and,
in
particular,
on
a
specific aspect
of Italian
Jewry:
the Kinah. The reason for such a
choice is that the Kinah is one of the first recorded
literary
manifesta-
tions of the
Jewish
communities
residing
in
Italy.1
The
Kinah,
also
known as
Judeo-Italian
Elegy,
was written in one of the
many
Italian
dialects,
but in Hebrew
characters.2
It was
part
of the
religious
serv-
ices
during
the fast of the ninth
day
of the month of
Av.3
My analysis
concentrates on both the
literary
and the
linguistic aspects
of the El-
egy, analyzing
the
language,
the
contents,
and the
style.
However,
for
the sake of
clarity,
some main
historical,
political,
and social events of
Medieval
Europe
are here
introduced,
calling upon
those motives and
traditions that could better
explain
the cultural
legacy
of Italian
Jewry.4
The
People of
Zion on Italian Soil:
From
Early
Presence to the Middle
Ages
Italian
Jewry
has
often,
and
rightfully
so,
been considered the old-
est
Jewish
community
of the Western
world,
as
Jewish
presence
in
Italy
has been continuous for over two millennia.
Despite
the numer-
ous
repressions
and
persecutions,
the
People of
Zion
residing
on Italian
soil have
managed
to survive
through
the
present day.5
We find
Jewish
settlements in
Italy already
in the second
century
before the
Vulgar
Era. Cecil
Roth,
in his The
History of
the
Jews
of Italy,
refers to the
Jewish
presence
in the
peninsula
as "indeed of
profound
antiquity
... its
Jewish
communities are older than even its most ven-
erable
corporations;
and if there is now in Rome
any
institution more
ancient than the
Papacy,
it is the
Synagogue."6
Substantiated
by
historical data and
archaeological findings,
it is
believed that the first
Jewish
settlements were in Rome and to its
south,
along
the trade routes and in the southern
ports7
which func-
tioned as a link with the Eastern Mediterranean mercantile
posts.
These small communities of both free men and slaves were made of
artisans, merchants, weavers,
dyers,
and farmers. Their
way
of life
shows a
high degree
of cultural assimilation to the local
customs,
in-
cluding
the
language.8
ITALICA Volume 75 Number 1
(1998)
2
JOSEPH
ABRAHAM LEVI
In the
year
70 of the
Vulgar
Era,
with the fall of
Jerusalem,
Titus
put
an end to the
political unity
of the
Jewish
people.
A
great
number
of
Jews
from Palestine were enslaved and sent to
Italy.
The
majority
was
dispatched
to
Rome,
while others were scattered
throughout
the
South:
Taranto, Otranto, Oria,
and
Bari.
Such forced
emigration
in-
creased the
Jewish
presence
in
Italy, mainly augmenting
and rein-
forcing
its ancient settlements.
By
the end of the Classical
period,
Jewish
presence
is found
throughout
the Italian
peninsula, Sicily,
and
Sardinia. Cecil Roth
rightfully
ascertains that
"every
sizable town in
Italy
had its
Jewish
community
before the
decay
of the Roman
Empire
in the West."9
However
things really
deteriorated with the Christianization of the
Empire
in the fourth
century.
The state of the
Jew
was one of
subjec-
tion,
oftentimes
protected, though unwillingly, by
the
Pope
of the
time
against
violence and brutal excesses. As a
whole, however,
the
basic fundamental human
rights
of the
Jew
were maintained. The fifth
and sixth centuries were much of the same: discrimination and hostil-
ity,
but all contained.
Little is known about the
daily
life of the
Jews
residing
in
Italy
during
these first centuries of the
Vulgar
Era. Even less is known
about their cultural and intellectual life. With the
exception
of the
works of
Josephus,1o
and Mattiah ben
Heresh11
no
literary activity
within the
Judeo-Italian
communities is to be found until the ninth
century.
We are left
only
with ruins of
synagogues
and tomb
inscrip-
tions in Greek and
Latin,
in which
only sporadically
some Hebrew
words
appear,
such as
Salom,
Salom el
Ysrael,
all
coupled
with
pagan
symbols
or with a menorah.
Political and social events of the
eighth
and ninth centuries will
deeply
affect Italian
Jewry,
its
daily
life,
as well as its cultural
aspect.
The
migration
of
Jews
from North
Africa,
escaping
the Muslim
grip,
had as its main
consequence
an
increasing
renewed interest in He-
brew and Hebrew studies as a whole. It was a revival of their
culture,
of their
forgotten living language, leading
to the birth of rabbinical
schools and the
increasing production
of works in Hebrew.
Soon,
by
the end of the tenth
century
Italian
Jews
came to be
regarded
as
highly
educated and well trained in
religious
matters.
Italy,
and in
particular
the whole
South,
including Sicily,
can boast
of its ancient schools of
religious poetry
in Hebrew: "the earliest in
Europe,
if not the earliest outside Palestine."12
Only by bearing
this in
mind,
can we then understand a
twelfth-century
scholar,
when
he,
using
as his model Isaiah
2:3,13
said: "from
Bari
comes forth the
Law,
and the word of God from Otranto."14
As we have seen, then, at the end of the first millennium and in the
early
Middle
Ages,
southern
Italy
is the heartland for
Jewish
culture.
However, things begin
to
change.
At the end of the thirteenth
century,
LE IENTI DE SION 3
persecution
in the
Kingdom
of
Naples15
left
many
Jews
with either
conversion to
Christianity
or
exile, i.e.,
migrating
north:
Rome,
Cen-
tral and Northern
Italy.
After a
century,
Jewish
life in Southern
Italy,
except
for
Sicily,
was almost
entirely
eradicated,
having
lost its
past
splendor
and
fame,
never to be
regained.
From now
on, Jewish
set-
tlements
are to be found
only
in Rome and to its north.
In the
meantime,
the
great trading
cities of central and northern
Italy begin
to free themselves from the
remote,
indirect control of the
German
Empire,
thus
managing
to
organize
themselves into semi-
autonomous
independent
states. The
Jews
residing
here,
to the north
of
Rome,
are
mainly
merchants and
traders,
especially
in the
great
Italian
republics
such as Pisa and Genoa. Before the thirteenth cen-
tury,
however,
only
to a few
Jews
permanent
or
temporary
residence
to the north of Rome was allowed.16 This attitude was the result of
fear of economic
competition
rather than a
religious
bias.
Gradually,
though,
in the
following
two centuries
things
lead to a
change,
to the
invitation of
Jewish
settlements within their
cities,
due
partly
to the
Catholic Church. For a
long
time the Church had been
very
adamant
in its crusade
against
Christian
usury.
It was
precisely
at this
point
that
many
central and northern Italian cities
began
to invite
Jewish
bankers. The need for
capital
was
great,
and
Jewish
money
lenders
served the
purpose.
Thus,
the end of the thirteenth
century figures
as the
turning point
for such "internal
Diaspora":
the
People of
Zion move north.
They
make their
appearance
in central and northern
Italy, living
in close
contact with the
goim
in both the cities and
countryside.17
Of the cen-
tral Italian
regions,
the Marche and
Umbria,
due to
geographical
con-
tiguity, successfully manage
to maintain their cultural ties with the
Jewish
community
of Rome.
The
Jews
already residing
in these central and northern Italian
towns18
hence
open up
the
way
for new
migrations.
These new immi-
grants
were
Jews,
but
they
were also "Italians"
speaking
a vernacular
which had Latin at its roots.
Therefore,
assimilation to other Italian
Jews
was not
difficult,
and instead of drastic
linguistic consequences,
it created a
linguistic compromise.
Life and culture of Italian
Jews
in
these first three centuries of the second millennium thus reflect these
deep changes-mainly political-that
touched the Italian Peninsula as
a whole.
The
Language
Hebrew is the
literary language
of these communities: the
religious
language
in which the
Jews
of the
Diaspora-Galut
in Hebrew-ex-
pressed
themselves. It was studied and learned at the
scholae19
and
used for the
daily prayers.
In all other
aspects
of
daily life, Italian
Jews
4
JOSEPH
ABRAHAM LEVI
had
totally adopted
the local customs
and/or
language(s), feeling
more comfortable with the latter-the local
regional
vernacular with
which each
community expressed
itself-which
was,
after
all,
their
native
tongue.
Hebrew was thus confined to
religion,
to
literary
and
moralistic treatises.
Yet,
there were instances in which
old,
antiquated
or more difficult Hebrew
etyma
were
glossed
in
Italian-i.e.,
the local
regional
Italian-in the
margin
of texts.20
Post-biblical Literature
Post-biblical literature in Hebrew derives from the desire of the
believer to adore the Lord both in
public congregations
and
private
prayer.
Sometimes believers would feel the need to
express
their love
and adoration in
short,
often
Scripture-based
stories. Such a
composi-
tion is the
piyyut, composed by
the
payyetanim21
who were numerous
in the Middle
Ages.
The
piyyut
is not an
integral part
of Hebrew lit-
urgy;
it
represents,
instead,
the occasional element for
holidays
and
special days,
and in the Midrash the
piyyut
is seen as a narration.
The first
Jewish
Italian
piyyutim
were
composed
in southern
Italy22
From the
south,
paitanic activity spread
to Rome and then to central
and northern
Italy.
The
piyyutim
are divided into
classes,
special
cate-
gories, according
to their
topic,
contents,
and
place
within the
liturgy.
There was also the
kinah,
an
elegy
often associated with the serv-
ices and the
religious
functions of the month of Av. Various
elegiac
poems
of this
type
were written in the Middle
Ages. Perhaps
the most
famous of all is the
Sionim-i.e.,
Odes to
Zion-composed by
Judah
ha-
Levi.23
In
addition,
some kinot are
present
in the Bible: for
example,
the
kinah of David
honoring
Saul and
Jonathan
in II Samuel
1:
19-27 and in
Lamentations,
in Hebrew
Eiknah,
was also known as the Book
of
Kinot.
The first kinot were used for
lamenting
the death of
family
leaders or
of entire nations
(Genesis 23:2;
Jeremiah 22:18;
Zaccariah
12:10).
With
time,
gradually,
the kinot were also recited when
major
calamities
struck the
Nation, i.e.,
the
people of
Zion.
The ninth of Av-Tishah be-Av-is the saddest
day
in the
Jewish
calendar. In the Talmud
(Numbers 13-14)
God
designated
the ninth of
Av as a
day
of
calamity
because of the lack of faith in His
promises
to
rescue them from the wilderness: "You
wept
without a
cause;
I will
therefore make this an eternal
day
of
mourning
for
you."
It was then
decreed that on the ninth of Av the
Holy Temple
would be
destroyed
and the
People of
Zion would
go
into exile and not enter the Land of
Israel (Numbers 14:29).
The Mishnah (Ta'an 4:6) tells us of five disasters that
happened
on
this
day:
a. after their Exodus from
Egypt,
the
people
of Israel would
never enter the Promised Land; b. the first destruction of the
Holy
LE IENTI DE SION 5
Temple by
Nebuchadnezzar
(586 b.V.E.);
c. the second destruction of
the
Holy Temple by
Titus
(70 V.E.);
d. the
fortress-city
of Bethar seized
in 135 V.E. with the massacre of Bar Kokhba and his
men;
e. 136
A.D.,
Jerusalem
is renamed Aelia
Capitolina,
and the
Holy Temple
becomes a
pagan temple.24
Such a
day,
then,
has
ultimately
become the utmost
symbol
for all
persecutions
and calamities that have befallen
upon
the
chosen
people.
The
synagogue
service
begins
after sundown with the
Ma'ariv25
followed
by
the
reading
and
chanting
of the Book
of
Lamentations. At
the end of
Lamentations,
the next-to-last verse is
repeated by everyone
because of the
hopeful
note of its
message:
"Turn us unto
You, o Lord,
and we shall be
turned,
renew our
days
of old."
Following
the Book
of
Lamentations,
there is the recital of a series of
piyyutim.
These
prayers,
known also as
kinot,
describe the destruction
of the
Temple
and
portray
the sins of the
Jewish
people.
The last kinah
is entitled Eli Tzion
Ha-lo
tishali
(Sweet
singer
of
Zion) and is
sung
to a
well-known
melody.
Yehudah Ha-Levi
composed
this
poem.
It
sings
of the restoration of
Zion,
a
hope
that has been cherished
by every
generation
of
Jews.
The verses
speak eloquently
of Israel and of the
pains
of Galut.
Many
kinot for the ninth of Av start with the word
Zion,
including
the
Judeo-Italian
Kinah. The Italian
rite,
among
other
things,
includes
also the Nahem for the
blessings
and the restoration of
Jerusalem.
The
Judeo-Italian
Kinah: La
ienti
de Sion
A Kinah is
usually
made of verses-with a minimum
ranging
be-
tween 22 and
24-following
the Hebrew
alphabet,
thus
forming
an
acrostic. Each stanza is divided into a double
refrain,
creating
a
very
special rhythm,
an
echo,
or better
yet,
an
echoing rhythm.
The musi-
cality
of the entire
elegy
derives from this
particular rhythm,
from the
very
echo that it causes. Therefore it is evident that the kinah is in-
tended to be
sung. Usually
there is a
rhyme
that the believer
reads,
similar to a
chanting,
then follows a
longer passage
recited
by
the
whole
congregation.
Judeo-Italian
texts were not
composed
in order
to be learned
and/or
memorized.
They
were
meant, instead,
for
pub-
lic
reading,
recited in
congregation during
the
religious
services.
They
were aimed at a
very simple
audience,
mainly
women and the
young.
These
Jews
of the
Diaspora barely
knew how to
recognize
the letters
of the Hebrew
alphabet
and to read aloud
during
the
religious
serv-
ices.
Sadly enough, many Jews
could
barely
read the
holy
texts. In
fact, the
language
with which these
Jewish
Italians
expressed
them-
selves
daily
and with which
they
felt more comfortable was the local
Italian vernacular.
6
JOSEPH
ABRAHAM LEVI
The Italian Kinah is divided into three
parts:
1.)
an initial introduc-
tion of 48 verses-it is the lamentation for the massacre and the fol-
lowing Diaspora
(Galut)
of the chosen
people;
2.)
a medial
section,
of
also 48 verses-it concentrates on
only
one
episode
of the
Galut; 3.)
and a
final,
conclusive
part,
of
only
24 verses-it is the invocation to
God,
the
hope,
the fervent desire for the reconstruction of the
Holy
Temple
in
Jerusalem.
Verses 1-48 recount the
many regrets
of the Chosen
People,
the
People of
Zion.
They
have lost the
glory
of their
past,
the
blessings
of
the Lord. The
Temple,
now
destroyed,
is the main
object
of the Lam-
entation,
along
with all the misadventures that it caused. Israel suf-
fers,
it is
being
mocked. All this is narrated in
very generic
terms,
without
any specific
reference to the
Scriptures. Only
verses 37-39
recall a
particular episode
of the Talmud and the Midrashic literature.
Verses 49-96 concentrate on the
argument
of the
Elegy.
The
topic
is
a
religious
one,
tinged
with folklorist elements. The main
story
is
taken from the Midrash and the Talmud There are two versions: one
from the Midrash Ekka
Rabba,
the other from the
Babylonian
Talmud.
There is also a third
version,
in the Midrash Ekka
Zuta,
however this
one is a derivatio of the
Babylonian
Talmud. The other
two, instead,
be-
sides a few differences and small
details,
are
very
similar to each
other.26 It seems that the author of the
Elegy
knew both
versions,
es-
pecially
the Midrash Ekka Rabba. In
fact,
from the latter he
appropriates
almost all of the
story.
This could in
part
be due to the
story being
orally transmitted-through
the centuries-and then recorded into
folklore books.
Verses 97-120 end the
Elegy.
Here we have the
prayer,
direct and
explicit,
to the Lord. It is a wonderful
plea
to the
Lord,
so that He
may
pour
once
again
those abundant
blessings
which He used to bestow
upon
His
people
in the
past.
It is the
People of
Zion here who
talk,
those Chosen
by
the
Lord. The world has to return to its
original
set-
ting:
the enemies-the
goim-on
one hand and Israel on the other.
This is the
only hope, surpassed only by
the
joy
of the
Lord,
by
the
fulfillment of the
prophesy:
the return to
Israel,
seeing
Zion,
entering
into
Jerusalem.
Such
ending
is
typical
of
pan-Hebraic
kinot on the
ninth of Av. Past and
present
calamities are lamented. But there is the
gracious hope
for
tomorrow,
the future
"prophesied by
the
prophet"
(v. 117).
The
Manuscripts
The
Elegy,
as mentioned
earlier,
was written in
vernacular, i.e.,
in
the local
regional
Italian
language,
but in Hebrew characters27 and it
was found in two
manuscripts,
both
dating
back to the 14th
century.
The
original
date of
composition
is uncertain: end of the twelfth and
beginning
of the thirteenth
century.
LE IENTI DE SION 7
The
language
is central or central-southern Italian.
However,
we
do not have
enough data-linguistic
and/or
historical-to determine
its collocation in time and
geo-linguistic space.
Attached to the
Elegy
were found some
selicoth-i.e.,
penitential hymns-which
refer to
historical events of the
Jewish
community
in Rome. This could
prove
that the
Elegy might
have been written in Rome or in
any
of those
small
Jewish
communities of central
Italy
in close
religious
and cul-
tural contacts with Rome.
Of the two
manuscripts,
the first one
belonging
to the
Temple
of
Ferrara was found with the vowels
possibly
added
by
the same scribe.
However,
the
great majority
of them are
gone
and there are also
many
errors of
transcriptions
which make the
interpretation very
hard. Of-
tentimes there are
corrections,
usually
written over or above the text.
Such
orthographic
errors could be a
good
indication
that,
by
this
time,
the scribe
already
was not
understanding
well the text from which he
was
copying.
The second
text,
found at
Parma,
is made of two differ-
ent
manuscripts.
The Kinah is contained in the first
volume,
following
some
prayers
for the fast of the ninth of
Av,
as
part
of a
regular
Machzor in Hebrew. This text has
only
the consonants. Its vowels were
added later and
perhaps
not even
by
the same scribe. This
copy
has
less mistakes and seems closer to the
original Elegy.
Both texts are not
copies
of one
another;
instead
they
derive from a
common
archetype,
be it
directly
or
indirectly,
which,
it
seems,
was
itself not void of mistakes.
The tercets-with each metrical line made of four words-have
only
one
rhyme
meter. The verses have
asymmetrical syllables
in
which neither the number nor the
position
of the atonic
syllable
are
taken into account. There is a constant
though:
to the last tonic
sylla-
ble follows an atonic. Therefore the verses are
paroxytones.
However,
the
composer
does not follow this
pattern
all the
way through:
in such
cases there are
only
three accented words.
The
Language
Generally speaking,
the
language
of the Kinah is central Italian. It
belongs
to that vast
linguistic
and
geographic
area that covers Mar-
che, Umbria,
and Latium.
However,
it is
impossible
to narrow it
down to an exact location. Umberto
Cassuto28
opted
for the Marche
area,
and more
precisely
its southern boundaries. But he himself was
not
really
convinced about it. The
linguistic
characteristics are
very
vague
and/or
too
generic,
so
widely spread
and
dispersed
on a vast
geographic territory
that it is
impossible
to arrive to a common
place
of
origin,
to the
irradiating point.29
There are also some southern
features. These could be due to the scribe
himself-mainly
for the Fer-
rara
manuscript-or
to the mere historical events of the various
8
JOSEPH
ABRAHAM LEVI
Judeo-Italian
communities. The latter
theory
seems more
appealing
than the former. As I have mentioned
earlier,
the first
Jewish
commu-
nities are to be found in the South.
Only
later,
due to
political
reasons,
the
Jews
were forced to
migrate
north-i.e., Rome, Central, and/or
Northern
Italy.
These southern
features, then,
could be
linguistic
traces,
remnants of their
original
locations before
they
were forced to
move north.
There are some
scholars,
mainly
in the
past, including
Umberto
Cassuto,
who
firmly
believe in a Roman-based
Jewish-Italian
koind
which later
spread throughout
the
peninsula,
wherever
Jewish
com-
munities were to be
found,
eventually modifying
and
dividing
itself
according
to the
phonetic
differences of the new locations. This koind
would have therefore been the common ancestor of all the
Jewish
set-
tlers
in
Italy, becoming
then a means of communication
denoting
an
antique homogeneity.30
Therefore,
talking
about
Judeo-Italian
dialects
(languages)
is talk-
ing
about the
languages
of the
places
where each
Jewish
community
lived. A
Jewish-Italian
and a
goy
when
speaking
would differ
only
in
the lexical choice
pertaining
to
his/her
religious expressions
and/or
other
linguistic
archaisms,
mainly
due to centuries-old
segregations.
Here and there
linguistic
fusions will be
found,
where to the Hebrew
root the local Italian "vernacular"
gender
marker is added or where
some Hebrew verbal forms
adapt
to the Italian model. But besides
these
peculiarities,
which
by
the
way
are
quite
minimal,
Judeo-Italian
is well
integrated, linguistically
indivisible,
and
practically
the same
with the
language
of the
goim
of that
given region
and/or
geographico-political
area.31
Linguistic Analysis
As I have mentioned
earlier,
the Italian Kinah does not have much
in common with other
pan-Hebraic
kinot. These kinot have
many
analogies, specific
references,
mainly
direct
quotes
from the
Holy
Scriptures.
The Italian
Elegy,
instead,
does not follow this
pattern.
There are a few
references,
but
they
are
very vague
and
certainly
there is no direct
quote
from the
Scriptures.
Whenever the verses are
modeled on some textual
verses,
the
style
and the
expression
are so
powerful
and
unique
that the sacred model
upon
which it draws is
put
in the
background.
The Kinah has its own
personality, very
Italian,
full of cultural elements
peculiar
to its
origin.
Since it was
composed
in
Italy,
it was influenced
by
its
culture,
mentality,
and
history.
In the
pan-Hebraic world, the
person who would
usually recite the
kinot was the
sofed or, in the case of a
woman, the mekonen
(Ecclesiastes
12:5; Jeremiah 9:16; 19), and oftentimes
they
themselves would com-
pose
them. Our
Judeo-Italian composer, writing
in
"vernacular," was
LE IENTI DE SION 9
addressing
the audience. Umberto Cassuto called him a sheliach zib-
bur,32 i.e.,
a
person
who would celebrate. A shaliach is a
knowledge-
able
person
who knows the Law. His task is to
help
the believers in
understanding
the
Scriptures
and other
religious
matters. It is
very
possible,
then,
that this Italian shaliach could have also
sung
the
Elegy
amongst
the whole
congregation.
And this would
explain
the use of
the vernacular within the
literary pattern.
He
resembles,
in his
style,
the
minstrel,
the medieval
traveling poet
and musician. The lexicon
and the
way
he addresses his audience evoke the ballad
singer.
Whether this is conscious imitation or
just
evidence of
strong
influ-
ences of
popular compositions
of
religious
minstrels,
it
certainly
talks
about the
language
and the influence of this itinerant
poetry upon
the
early
Italian
literature,
where secular and
religious aspects
are inter-
twined,
inseparable.
From the
phonological point
of
view,
the Kinah reflects dialectal
features of Central and Southern
Italy.
However,
as Giuliana Fioren-
tino has also
noted,
there is not "a
single specific
and more
typical
fact
that would
permit
a
precise localization.''33
There are a few dialectal features that
blatantly
reveal their central
and/or
southern
origin:
a. assimilation in consonantal
clusters,
where
one of the two consonants is a nasal
(m
or
n):
nd > nn fonnamento
(v. 33);
bennerelli
(v. 72)
nv > mm 'mmediati
(v. 15)
mm > mb afflambato
(v. 30)
b. oftentimes
coupled
with assimilation there is
apheresis
of initial i:
'nfanti (v. 67); 'nalzata (v. 7);
'mmediati (v.15)
c. the cluster ns is transcribed
graphically
as
nz,
with z
representing
an
affricate:
pinzaru
(v. 16);
'nfranzi
(v. 24)
d.
gn
>
nn,
the most recurrent
being
onni
e. there are also
many
uncertainties in
representing
close e and
i,
close
o and
u,
mainly
when
they
are in atonic
position.
The most common
solution is
employing
the
high
vowels i and e :
ienti, notti, onori,
porti,
donni, flambi,
and in such tonic words as:
rimo,
signuri
f. metaphony:
dece, fici,
quilla,
condutta,
lie
g.
confusion between b and v:
boce (v. 49)
h.
many
cases of
phonosyntactic doubling:
ddesfatto (v. 110); ettri (v. 37); ddio (v. 47); cki (v. 53); dde (v. 83)
10
JOSEPH
ABRAHAM LEVI
i. use of the
pluperfect,
i.e.,
the
preterite, simple
or in its
compound
form with the
auxiliary
verb "to
be,"
avere:
abbero scordatu (v. 21);
abbero desirtato (v. 28);
abbe afflambato (v. 30);
abbe venduta (v. 56);
fu tradato
(v. 58)
Concerning
its
lexicon,
what makes it different from other
forms,
or
rather,
other "local" vernaculars and
"standard" Italian,
are
specific
words
pertaining
to
religion,
not
many,
and a few
linguistic calques,
i.e.,
loan translations into the vernacular of a
concept,
an
idea,
origi-
nally
non existent in situ-in the local
language(s)-but
used in He-
brew. There are also some
translations,
even
literal,
new
ways
of
say-
ing,
or new
meanings given
to "old"
ones-i.e.,
pre-existing
and
currently
used-words:
i.) Emperio
(v. 8)
translates the Hebrew
Malkhut;
ii.)
Rumpere
la lie e
lo
pattu
(v. 111)
translates the idea of
berith-e.g.,
breaking
the Law and the covenant with the
Lord;
iii.)
Gattivandu
(v. 6)
is a
calque,
via
Greek,
and it translates the
concept
of
"living
in
slavery."
Some
religious
Judaic
words are also found in Italian:
e.g.,
Sion,
Israel, Deo,
Templo,
Santo, Sacerdoti,
Leviti. In the midst of the nar-
ration,
our shaliach calls the attention of his
listeners,
crying:
Ki bole aodire crudeletate34
The
composer interrupts
the narration and
addressing
his
audience,
talks,
either
directly
or
indirectly,
as a true medieval minstrel.35 In the
following
two tercets he
poses
these two
questions:
Quista
crudeli ki
aodisse,
ki
grandi cordoglio
no li
prindisse,
e
grande
lamento no ne facisse?
Ki
poe
contare
l'altri tormenti,
ki
spisso spisso
so
convenenti,
plo
dori
ke flambi ardenti?36
or,
a bit earlier in the
narration,
he sneaks in the innuendo:
ke n nulla
guisa
si no
poi
recitare.37
qenqa
rimo
(entenda
ki sa
iutare!)38
Here he calls
upon
the listeners'
judgment,
he wants them to listen, to
think, to
ponder, and, most of all, to fear God and the
consequences
of
His wrath, and at the same time to have
pity
over His
people.
LE IENTI DE SION 11
Hence,
as we have
seen,
the
pagan,
the
strictly non-religious
model
was there: non-Hebraic in
nature,
and
religious
and secular at times. It
was
part
of
life,
of the
European
culture of that time. The shaliach rele-
gates
all this in the
background,
thus
reconstructing
a new
image,
forging
a new
system upon
which to
sing
and lament the
story
of his
people.
In
conclusion,
I would like to stress the notable
significance
of
Jewish
presence
in
Italy,
its role and influence in the
making
of Italian
life and culture.
Jews
have
contributed,
like
any
other ethnic
group,
to
the formation of Italian culture. Their contribution is
ancient,
and in-
estimable. Of course these influences work both
ways
and
speaking
of
Jewish
Italian
oftentimes,
if not
always,
is
quite synonymous
with
Italian
Jewish.
Italian culture and
language(s)
contributed to this
unique expression
of
Jewry.
The
secular,
the
pagan,
and the non-He-
braic
religious experience
and models were there.
They
were
part
of
life,
of the
European
and Italian culture of that time. The Italian
shaliach,
the
composer
of the
Kinah,
had all this at his
disposal.
The
People of
Zion are thus an indivisible
part
of
Italy
and Italian culture.39
So
unmistakably
Italian and
yet
still
Jewish.
Text in Transliterated Latin
Script40
1 La ienti de Sion
plange
e
lutta;
dice:
taupina,
male so condutta
em manu de lo nemicu ke m'ao strutta.
4 Le notti e la die sta
plorando,
li soi
grandezi
remembrando,
e mo
pe
lo mundu vao
gattivandu.
7
Sopre
onni
ienti
foi
nalzata,
e d'onni
emperio
adornata,
da Deo santo k'era amata.
10 E li
signori
da onni canto
gianu
ad offeriri a lo
templo
santo,
de
lo
granti
onori k'avea tanto.
13 Li
figlie
de Israel erano
adornati,
de sicerdoti e liviti
avantati,
e d'onni ienti foro mmediati.
16 Li nostri
patri
male
pinzaru,
ke contra Deo
ravillaru;
lu beni ke
li
fici no remembraro.
19 Pi
quisto
Deo
li
foi adirato,
e
d'emperiu
loro foi caczato,
ka lo soi nome abbero scordatu.
12
JOSEPH
ABRAHAM LEVI
22
Sopre
isse mandao si
granni
osti,
ki foi si dura e ssi
forti,
ke
roppe
mura e nfranzi
porti.
25
Guai,
qunata
ienti
foi meciata,
ke tutta la terra ia
ensanguinentata!
ohi, Sion,
ke
si'
desfigliata!
28 Lo
templo
santo abbero
desirtato,
ke
n'granti
onori foi
deficato,
e foco da celo l'abbe afflambato.
31
Sprecaro
torri
e
grandi palaza,
e
lo
bando
gia pe
onni
plaza:
fi a fonnamento si desfacza!
34 Vidisi donni la
desfare,
e
ientili
omeni de
granni
affari,
ke n nulla
guisa
si no
poi
recitare.
37 E ttri navi misero
pi
mare,
?enga
rimo
(entenda
ki sa iutare!)
e tutti em mare se
prisero
iettare.
40 Altri ne vinnero d'onne
canto,
tutti
?enqa
bandire
per quanto;
oi,
ke
farai,
popolo
santo?
43 E ili leviti e li sacerdoti
como
bestiaglia
foro
venduti,
enfra
l'altra
iente
poi sperduti.
46 Tanto era dura loro
signoria,
la notte
prega
dDio ke forsi
dia,
la dia la
notti,
tanto scuria.
49 Ki bole aodire crudeletate
ke addevenni da sore e
frate,
ki n
quilla
ora foro
gattivati?
52 Ne la
prisa
foro devisati:
ki abbe la soro e cki lo
frate,
e n
gattivanza
foro menati.
55 Lo
signore
de la
soro, meciaro,
l'abbe
venduta ad uno
tavernaro,
ke de lo vino la l'embriaro.
58 E lo frate fue tradato
ad una
puttana pi peccato;
oi, popolo santo, male si'
guidato!
LE IENTI DE SION 13
61 Venni una ora ke s'adunaro
quilla puttana
e
lo tavernaro,
e l'una e l'altro lo recitaro.
64 Una donna
aiu,
bella
quanto
rosa,
bene crido k'e ienti cosa,
de la ienti trista e dolorosa.
67
Quilla
respundi:
k'io aio uno
nfanti,
ked e si ienti ed
avvenanti,
plo
ki la stilla da livanti.
70 In
quisto pinzaro parenteze
a
fari,
e li loro
figli
a
sserventari,
e bennerelli
pe guadagnare.
73 Foro coniunti ad una caminata:
la donna da canto e
sviata;
dece:
trista,
male foi nata!
76 Da sacerdoti io
foi
figliola,
signuri
de lie e dde
scola;
e mmo cu uno servo stao sola.
79 Cosi lo nfanti stava da
canto;
facia lamento e
grandi planto:
ka foi
figlio
d'uno omo santo.
82 Ma so adunato c'una
seriente,
ne
dde mia lie n' dde mia
iente;
como
faraio, tristo,
dolente?
85 En
quillo planto
s'abbero
aoduti,
e l'uno e l'altro conosciuti:
soro e
frati,
ovi simo venuti?
88 E l'uno e l'altro se
abbraczaro,
e con
grandi planto
lamentaro,
fi ke moriro e
pasmaro.
91
Quista
crudeli ke
aodisse,'
ki
grandi cordoglio
no li
prindisse,
e
grande
lamento no ne facisse?
94 Ki
poe
contare
l'altri tormenti,
ke
spisso spisso
so
convenenti,
plo
dori
ke flambi ardenti?
97 Santo Dio nostro
Signore,
retorna a reto lo too forore,
e no
guardari
a noi
piccadori.
14
JOSEPH
ABRAHAM LEVI
100 Pe lo too nomo santo e
binditto,
lo nostro coro aiusta a
dderitto,
ke te sirvamo in fatto e n ditto.
103 E remembra la
prima
amanza,
e trai noi de
quista gattivanza,
de
quista
tenebri e scuranza.
106 E lo nemico k'" tanto
avantato,
ne lo too furori sia
deiettato,
da canto en canto desirtato.
109 E cetto facza como ao
fatto,
e sia strutto e
ddesfatto,
ka fao
rumpere
la lie e
lo
patto.
112 E deriza stradi n onni
canto,
ad adunare en
quillo
santo
quillo popolo
k'amasti tanto.
115 E lo santo
templo
k'W
deguastato
de la toa mano sia
defecato,
lo too
prufeta
como ao
profetato.
118 Leviti e secerdoti e tutta ienti
entro Sion stare
gaoiente,
lo santo toi nome bendicenti.
JOSEPH
ABRAHAM LEVI
University of
Iowa
NOTES
1Italy
and Italian are here used in their
geographico-historical meaning, compris-
ing
the Italian
peninsula proper, Sicily,
Sardinia,
and other
regions
and/or
cities once
part
of the Roman
Empire,
and now
politically
not
part
of
Italy, e.g.,
Nice, Pola,
Spalato, just
to name a few
which,
off and
on,
throughout
the
centuries,
shared the
same fate of their Italian
counterparts.
2In
this
case,
one or more central Italian
dialect(s).
3The
years
in the Jewish calendar are counted "since the Creation."
However,
ac-
cording
to
chronological
calculations based
upon
internal evidence from the
Bible,
the
beginning-i.e.,
the
Creation-might
have occurred in the
year
3761
b.V.E.,
or
rather,
5754
years ago. According
to another
computation,
done
by Byzantine
theolo-
gians,
Creation
only
started 5509
years ago!
In
daily practice
the thousands are not
enumerated,
therefore the Jewish
year
is often
represented starting
with the hundreds
onwards. The letters of the Hebrew
alphabet
are used to
represent
the cardinal num-
bers and each letter of the Hebrew
alphabet
has its own numerical
equivalent.
The
year
in the Judaic
system
is made of 12 lunar
months; however,
the
festivities-i.e.,
the
religious holidays-follow
the solar
system.
This is due to the fact that some of
these
holidays-e.g., Pesah, (the
Jewish
Passover),
Shavu'ot and
Sukkot-must occur
during particular seasons,
and the seasons are determined
by
the annual revolutions of
LE IENTI DE SION 15
the earth as it turns around the Sun. A lunar
year
is made of almost 345 and
1/3
days,
while a solar
year
contains
approximately
365 and 1
1/2
days,
or almost eleven
days
more,
hence the Jewish
holidays
would fall within the
wrong
seasons-i.e.:
during
months not allowed
by
the
religious
law-if
they
were to follow the
regular cycle
of
the lunar months. In order to
prevent
these
difficulties,
the lunar calendar is
always
emended so that it can
keep
these conformities with the solar
system.
This is
possible
through
the
periodical
introduction of a thirteenth
month,
called Adar
Bet-i.e.,
Adar
the
Second,
or Adar
II-right
after the
regular
month
Adar, which,
during leap year
is
called Adar
Alef-i.e.,
Adar the
First,
or Adar I.
During
nineteen
years
this
discrepancy
between the lunar and the solar month sums
up
to a total of 207
days.
Therefore,
Adar
Bet,
Adar
II,
is introduced to the
Jd, 6th, 8th,
1
',h 14h, 17h,
and
19'
,
every
nineteen
years.
Here is a list of the months of the Jewish calendar
together
with
the
approximate equivalent
in the
Gregorian
calendar-i.e.,
the common calendar
used
today throughout
the entire world-and the
approximate
duration of each one of
them. The asterisk indicates that the month
only
occurs
during leap year:
Tishrei
(c. Sept-Oct.)
30
days
Heshwan
(c. Oct.-Nov.)
?
29/30
days
Kislew
(c. Nov.-Dec.)
?
29/30
days
Tevet
(c. Dec.-Jan.)
29
days
Shevat
(c. Jan.-Feb.)
30
days
Adar
(c. Feb.-March)
29
days
Adar I *
(Adar
followed
by
Adar
II)
30
days
Adar
II
*
(c. March-April)
29
days
Nisan
(c. March-April)
30
days
Iyar
(c. April-May)
30
days
Siwan
(c. May-June)
30
days
Tamuz
(c. June-July)
29
days
Av
(c. July-August)
?
29/30
days
Elul
(c. August-Sept.)
29
days
Cf. Isaac
Klein,
A Guide to Jewish
Religious
Practice
256-59;
Hayim
Baltsam.
Hebrew
Dictionary. Hebrew/English. English/Hebrew;
Lavinia
Cohn-Sherbok,
and
Dan Cohn-Sherbok. A
Popular Dictionary of Judaism;
Shimshon Inbal.
English-
Hebrew.
Hebrew-English
Pocket
Dictionary; Angel
Saienz-Badillos.
A
History of
the
Hebrew
Language.
4Following
are a few terms
designating
some
geographical groups
of the Jews of
the
Diaspora:
i. Ashkenazic:
relating
to the Jews of
Germany,
Austria,
the German
canton in
Switzerland,
Central
Europe,
and their descendants in Central and Eastern
Europe,
and elsewhere in the world.
Technically,
it
applied
to Jews whose native
tongue
and/or
place
of
origin
was German
and/or
a German
speaking
area,
a Slavic
language
and/or area, Romanian, Moldavian,
Hungarian
and/or
Finno-Ugrian;
ii.
BanilBeni Israel:
relating
to the Jews of India and their descendants elsewhere in the
world;
iii. Falashah:
relating
to the Jews of
Ethiopia
and their descendants elsewhere
in the
world;
iv. Italkian:
relating
to the Jews of
Italy, including
the
Italo-phone parts
of
Switzerland, Slovenia, Malta, southern France, Corsica,
and their descendants
elsewhere in the
world;
v. Maaravic:
relating
to the Jews of
north-western
Africa and
their descendants elsewhere in the
world;
vi. Sabra:
relating
to the Jews
from-i.e.,
born in-Israel;
vii.
Sephardic: relating
to the Jews of the Iberian Peninsula
(e.g.,
Portugal
and
Spain)
and their descendants elsewhere in the
world;
viii. Temanic: re-
lating
to the Jews of
southern
Arabia and their descendants elsewhere in the
world;
ix.
Yevanic:
relating
to the Jews of ancient Mediterranean
Greek-speaking regions,
of the
Balkans,
of
past
and
present
Greece,
and their descendants elsewhere in the
world;
x.
16
JOSEPH
ABRAHAM LEVI
Zarphatic: relating
to the Jews of
northern
France and their descendants elsewhere in
the world. Cf. Yosef A.A.
ben-Jochannan,
We The Black Jews
(1983);
Solomon A.
Birnbaum,
The Hebrew
Scripts.
Part Two: The
Plates;
Solomon A.
Birnbaum,
The
Hebrew
Scripts.
Part One: The
Text;
Joseph
Abraham
Levi,
"Afonso
X,
o
Sibio,
as
ciencias
'islimicas,'
o
papel
de Afonso X na difusdo dessas ciencias e o 'Liuro con-
plido
en
o[s] juizos
das estrelas.' Possiveis
conex6es
entre o "Libro
conplido
en los
iudizios de las estrellas" e uma
versio
portuguesa
do
s6culo
XV escrita em caracteres
hebraicos,
o Bodleian
Library
MS. Laud Or.
310," 119-91;
182-83.
5Cf.
Luciano
Tas,
Storia
degli
ebrei italiani 14-15.
6Cecil
Roth,
The
History of
the Jews
of Italy
1.
7E.g.,
Ostia,
Naples,
Salerno, Bari, Otranto, Taranto, Venosa,
Reggio
Calabria.
8Their
presence
is attested
already
in the 2nd
century
b.V.E.
9Cecil Roth,
The
History of
the Jews
of Italy
21
10Josephus (ca.
37-100
A.D.),
Jewish
historian,
involved in the Jewish revolt
during
the
reign
of
Nero,
Roman
emperor
from 54 to 68. Cf.
Josephus,
The Jewish
War,
trans. G. A. Williamson.
I
1Mattiah
ben Heresh lived in Rome
during
the
2"d century
of the
Vulgar
Era.
12Cecil
Roth,
The
History of
the Jews
of Italy
60. It should also be noted that the
Jewish communities
residing
in
Italy
have
always
been in close contact with Palestine
and it was
mainly
from these
southern
Italian towns that the Palestinian tradition
could be introduced and then transmitted to the rest of
Europe.
131saiah
11:3 in other traditions.
14Cecil
Roth,
The
History of
the Jews
of Italy
60.
15Under
Angevin
rule,
1266-1302.
16E.g.,
Milan, Ferrara,
Bologna,
Forli, Padua,
Perugia,
Urbino.
17Goy, plural, goym:
non-Jewish.
18E.g.,
Milan, Ferrara,
Bologna, Forli,
Padua,
Perugia,
Urbino,
and Ancona.
19Synagogues.
20Cf.
the
Makrd Dardekd, published
in
Naples
in 1488
by
Frebat
P6rez,
a Franco-
Catalan Jew. This biblical
glossary explicates,
in
alphabetical order,
old and
forgotten
Hebrew
etyma
into the
vernacular Italian, Hebrew,
and Arabic. Cf. Giuliana Fioren-
tino. "Note lessicali al
Maqr6 Dardeq6"
138-59;
Giuliana
Fiorentino,
"The General
Problems of the Judeo-Romance in the
Light
of the
Maqrd Dardeqe"'
57-77;
Mois6
Schwab,
ed. and trans.
Maqrd Dardeqe.
21piyyut: liturgical poem
written in Hebrew.
220ria.
23Spanish
doctor,
philosopher
and
poet,
1085-1140. He believed in the return of
his
People
to Zion. His Ode became
part
of the
liturgy
for the ninth of Av. Other
po-
ems-more than 300-were also introduced in various rites.
24Furthermore,
there are two other
major
events that also
happened
on the ninth of
Av: in 1290 Edward
I, 1239-1307,
king
of
England,
1272-1307,
signed
the decree
expelling
the Jews from
England;
1492,
over
150,000
Jews were
expelled
from
Spain.
25Evening
service,
recited
daily
after
nightfall.
It is one of the three basic
daily
prayers.
26Cf.
Umberto
Cassuto,
"Un'antichissima
elegia
in dialetto
giudeo-italiano"
358-
63.
27Maybe
because it was
part
of a
Machzor,
a
complete cycle
of
prayers
for the
whole
year including piyyutim
for
special
Shabbats and other annual
holy
festivities
used in the
synagogues,
therefore written
completely
and
solely
in Hebrew.
28Umberto
Cassuto,
"Un'antichissima
elegia
in dialetto
giudeo-italiano"
382.
29
Gerolamo
Lazzeri, Antologia
dei
primi
secoli della letteratura italiana 181.
LE IENTI DE SION 17
30This
could be true but one should also bear in mind the historical and
political
events that have characterized and conditioned
Italy.
Since its
very beginning, Italy
has
always
been a divided
country,
in all the senses.
Geography
and
history
have
therefore divided the Jewish communities-as with the Italian
regions-hence pre-
venting
the formation of a
strong,
unified
koind,
as in the case of Yiddish
and,
on a
lesser
scale,
Ladino.
31Cf.
Giovanna Massariello
Merzagora,
II
giudeo-italiano:
dialetti italiani
parlati
dagli
ebrei
d'Italia;
Cesare
Segre, 'Benvenuto
Terracini,
linguistica
e le
parlate giu-
deo-italiane" 499-506.
32Umberto
Cassuto,
"Un'antichissima
elegia
in dialetto
giudeo-italiano"
388.
33Giuliana
Fiorentino,
"The General Problems of the Judeo-Romance in the
Light
of the
Maqrd-Dardeqe"
57-77;
Joseph
Sermoneta,
"Considerazioni frammentarie sul
giudeo-italiano"
1-29.
34He who wants to hear
cruelty (v. 49).
35Cf. Gerolamo
Lazzeri, Antologia
dei
primi
secoli della letteratura italiana 182.
36These
cruel deeds
having
heard,
Who would not be struck
by
sadness,
Thus
starting great
tribulations? Who can count the
many
torments,
That so
many
times
have
befallen,
Caused
by
the
pain
of
burning
flames?
(vv. 91-96).
37How
can we even start
telling
how
(v. 36).
38Without oars
(may
he who knows how to
help listen!) (v. 38).
39Gianfranco
Contini,
Poeti del Duecento 15-28.
40Umberto
Cassuto. "Un'antichissima
elegia
in dialetto
giudeo-italiano"
393; 395;
397; 399; 401; 403.
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