Para Moshe ben Maimon
De Gloria Joyce Ascher1
Part of a list of words handwritten by Maimonides
(Cambridge University, José Martínez Delgado) reproduced in Mosaic, Aug. 16, 2023
Philologos, “The Mysterious Glossary of Maimonides.”
Ke ermozas koneksiones mos amostra tu glosario!
Kon palavras ke akodran muestra lingua, el ladino!
I el profesor ke vido k’el glosario era tuyo
ya nasió en Córbova komo ti, i sta ambezando
en Granada, el lugar del Edikto d’Ekspulsión!
“Hasefaradí” firmavas. Esto eras: tan avierto,
ben adam, i tan sensible! I agora, i la lingua!
Lingua rika i mesklada, i a vezes misterioza …
Rengrasiamos al Dio Alto, ke mos dió este regalo!
For Moshe ben Maimon
What beautiful connections your glossary shows us
with words that so remind us of our language, Ladino!
And the professor who saw that the glossary was yours
was born in Cordoba like you, and he teaches
in Granada, the place of the Edict of Expulsion!
“The Sephardic one” you signed. That you were – so open,
a real human being, and so sensitive! And now, the language, too!
A language rich and mixed, and at times mysterious …
We give thanks to El Dio Alto for giving us this gift!
Gloria Joyce Ascher
Congregation Shearith Israel, New York City, December 17, 2023
For the discussion arranged by
Baruch-Lev Alfredo Kelman, Rabbinical Intern, on the glossary discovered
in the Cairo Geniza recently identified as Maimonides’.
Para Moshe ben Maimon, 2
Ya lo vidi, tu glosario!
Me asperó a mí
en New York --
ande m’ambezí la lingua
ke trushimos de l’Espanya.
Fue djusto antes de selebrar
el Dia del Ladino,
en el mizmo lugar,
the Center for Jewish History,
and there I felt the mystery,
connections so fantastic, magical, unheard of …
Your paper, full of blotches
from the long years spent in hiding --
like the leopard spotted vest
I was wearing just that day.
El biervo “fistok” vidi–
en lingua romansa, komo en ladino,
eskrito por tu mano …
Ma lo tinía de deshar
para ir a selebrar.
Ay avía de komer --
i fistokes!
Después, prezentasiones:
Se avló sovre Djohá,
la kultura optimista
i también muestra kumida …
Kualo veo? Mas fistokes!
Se yamó “Bendichas manos”
este Dia del Ladino,
komo lo dizimos
para selebrar las manos
ke aprontan la kumida.
I las tuyas, ke bendichas,
k’eskrivieron el glosario,
entre mil i un trezoro!
Grasias, manos, alma d’oro!
Gloria Joyce Ascher
Hyannis, 1/28/24 (a week later)
1 Gloria J. Ascher obtained her Ph.D. from Yale University and is Associate Professor Emerita of German, Scandinavian and Judaic Studies and co-director of Judaic Studies at Tufts University, Medford, MA. Born in the Bronx, New York to Ladino-speaking parents from Izmir, Turkey, she taught all levels of Ladino Language Culture at Tufts from 2000 to 2017, the longest continuous program in the United States. She now teaches Ladino independently. She is also a published author of prose and poetry. Our Volume 10, Issue 2, contains her autobiographical essay, “The Pleasures of Teaching Ladino,” based on her presentation at the 2020 International Ladino Day in New York.