A Mother Eats her Son

"My darling monkeyboy, Momma loves you so much I could just eat you all up."

12" x 15" x 2", Enameled, foiled cardstock  June 2016

Lyrics from a traditional Traditional Sephardic song after the Lamentations of Jerimiah, translated by Hamete Benengeli

Una Madre Comio Asado (a Mother Roasted Her Child):

And a mother roasted

and ate her cherished son

“Look at my eyes, mother.

I learned the law with them

Look at my forehead, mother
I wore the phylacteries there

Look at my mouth, mother:

I learned the law with it.”

Lyrics from a traditional Traditional Sephardic song after the Lamentations of Jerimiah, translated by Hamete Benengeli

From an interview with the composer, Osvaldo Golijov :

“That’s another incredible thing.  I said,  “What is this?”  How can one come up with a lyric like this?  “A mother roasted her cherished son, and then the son says:  ‘Look at my eyes, mother, I learned the Torah with them.  Look at my mouth I learned the law with it.”

”It alludes to the Lamentations of Jeremiah, which basically says:   Look at the city that stood so proud, and now mothers are eating their children.  That’s what happens when war ravages a region.  To me the marriage of these words and the beautiful melody are tremendous.” 

Here are links to two versions of this song, the first, w/Dawn Upshaw singing Golijov's adaption, the second of Sephardic origin by The Renaissance Singers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGQmJkvmSPE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tv_S_AShG88