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11. At the River’s Source: |
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Sung by Alicia Benassayag, Tetuán, 1956.
This song is the jewel of the Tetuán collection,
an enchanting melody wedded to a woman’s wry comments
on her life and work. Sitting at the source of the river
she gathers amber, pickles fish and picks parsley and
onions for her kitchen while uttering sour comments
about her husband, philandering men, and her mother-in-law.
She never identifies “Meroma” who giver birth
to twenty-five rats and a dove, but we can surmise she
is someone she views with disdain.
At the river’s source
She sits and cries,
She has an old husband
She’s sly one.
At the river’s source
Someone is by the waterside
Combing her hair
As she gathers amber.
Last night and the night before
Meroma gave birth
To twenty-five rats
And a dove.
At the river’s source
There is a little barrel
Filled with tiny sardines
In pickled brine.
At the river’s source
Where onions grow
Parsley and cilantro
For daily use.
Your husband and mine
Are two husbands
When they walk down the street
Are two hopeless men.
At the edge of the woods
Lives my mother-in-law
To save my shoes
I won’t visit her.
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