por What are the Mozarabic jarchas?
The mozarabic jarchas They are small lyrical compositions written by the Arab-Andalusian or Hebrew poets, during the Muslim rule in Hispania. The first appeared after three hundred years of occupation, between the 11th century and the 15th century.
These brief literary structures were in charge of closing the poems in cultured Arabic called moaxajas.
The moaxajas, for their part, are a strophic poetic composition typical of Muslim Spain. In the Spanish translation they are understood as «necklaces», so we can understand the jarchas as the «charms» that hang and adorn the poetic chokers that are the moaxajas.
Normally, the jarchas were written in colloquial Hispano-Arabic, however, records are presented where the elaboration of these poetic closures (also known as «exits») in the Romance language (Mozarabic) is evidenced. The exact number of outputs written in this dialect is not known.
The jarchas have a completely loving connotation, which is linked to the ancient form of the lyric typical of Hispania, the Christmas carols and the so-called «Cantigas de amigo». In short: the poetry of the people.
However, despite the fact that their themes touched on popular aspects, those who wrote them tended to be cultured men, Arab and Jewish poets, whose poetic pattern was traditional Romanesque lyrics.
Each written jarcha had to respond to the characteristics of the moaxaja to which it was integrated. But there were also cases in which they were newly created, that is, they did not depend thematically on the moaxaja.
Origin of the Mozarabic jarchas
After the Muslim occupation of the Iberian Peninsula in the 8th century, Hispanic culture underwent a remarkable transformation.
The oldest data on the jarchas is located in the 11th century, while the most recent at the beginning of the 14th century. They were extremely common between the end of the 11th century and the beginning of the 12th century, and there they had their greatest apogee.
It is said that the origin of the moaxajas lies with the Andalusian poet Muqaddam ben Muafa al-Qabri, known as the “blind man from Cabra”, Córdoba region, who invented them in the 9th century.
Characteristics of the jars
A series of peculiarities typical of the jarchas will be presented below:
The jarchas give reason to the moaxaja
Although its name means «closing» or «farewell», and they are used to close the moaxajas, it is necessary to keep in mind that the jarchas are the first thing to be made. That is to say: the moaxaja is written around the theme raised by the jarcha.
They present a variable metric structure
The rhythmic development of each verse of the jarcha is subject to the peculiarities of each poet. We can find ourselves, for example, in a jarcha of four verses —the most predominant stanzas, by the way— a verse of five syllables, another of seven syllables, another of ten and one of eleven.
They do not fit, then, to a particular measurement. They become popular more for the lyrical originality of their verses than for their metrics.
Let us remember that the good use of colloquial language by Andalusian poets was crucial in order to generate a real impact on the population and achieve its diffusion.
For the same jarcha there can be several moaxajas
Being the most well-known and widespread part among the population, and already belonging to popular sayings and conversations, it was normal for the same jarcha to compose different moaxajas.
This is not strange at all. If we take it to the current plane, let’s imagine a popular saying from a farmhouse, it is common for writers from that area, based on those aphorisms, to compose poems about it.
In Latin America it would be common for tenths to be made around these, and if the jarchas are octosyllabic quatrains, which is not so strange, they would serve as a «foot» for experienced decimists.
Speaking of «pie» means that each verse of the jarcha represents the final verse of four tenths composed around it. The jarcha, then, would be the poetic heart of the four tenths that would emerge later.
Its stanza forms are very diverse.
Let us remember that these «poemillas» or «songs», when developed by the various cultures that lived in Muslim Spain, in the Al-Andalus region, took on the connotations of each sector. Thus, the Hispano-Arabs or the Hispano-Hebrews gave them their own characteristics.
This same ethnic variance assigned very rich properties to each new jarcha that was made, the ones closest to the people being the most widespread.
It was totally normal, based on the above, to find jarchas of two verses, as well as jarchas of eight verses. However, when the jarcha exceeded four verses, the poets had to make use of the rhyme so that the much-needed learning was achieved in the vulgar.
If the poetic composition was very extensive, and a metric with good rhythm and catchy rhyme was not alluded to, it would be very difficult for people to memorize and repeat the compositions.
Within the peninsular lyrics, it is one of the first
Although they were developed from the 4th century by the Arabs, the oldest Mozarabic jarcha dates from approximately 1050.
Let us remember that Mozarabic was the Romance language spoken in Al-Andalus, a mixture of Arabic, Latin, Castilian, Navarro-Aragonese, Astur-Leonese, Catalan and even Galician-Portuguese.
Depending on the dates, they could be the first poetic manifestations in the Romance language, even earlier than the epic songs.
They helped to consolidate the Spanish language
The widespread use of jarchas since the 11th century throughout the Iberian Peninsula, strengthened the consolidation of the Spanish language as a logical unit of communication.
In the jarchas, Spanish is already quite recognizable, and this can be explained because in this region they already spoke a language that was a mixture of already evolved Latin, or Vulgar Arabic mixed with Romance (in the first example, later on, there is a sample of what we say).
Like everything that is sung, has rhythm and rhyme, is easier to learn and is spread by word of mouth, the jarchas served as mediators in the reinforcement and fixation of various linguistic and grammatical structures in the nascent Hispanic dialect.
From the bases of the popular to the high monarchical spheres, these poetic forms penetrated deeply, bringing enormous idiomatic benefits.
Examples of Mozarabic jarchas
From the compendium of existing jarchas, the most popular among the population will be shown, those with the greatest presence in the various textbooks and manuals prepared for their study and understanding (the versions in their original language and the translation in Spanish will be presented):
Example 1
“I love you so much, I love you so much,
Habib, I love you so much!
They sickened welios nidios
and they hurt so bad.”
(Kharcha of Yosef al-Kātib)
– Translation:
«From so much loving, from so much loving,
friend, so much love!
They sickened previously healthy eyes
and that now they hurt a lot”.
Example 2
“Baayse méw quorażón de mib.
Yā Rabb, šiše me tōrnarād?
So bad I dólēd li-l-habīb!
Sick yéd: kuánd šanarád?”
(Kharcha of Yehuda Halevi)
– Translation
“My heart leaves me.
Oh, Lord, I don’t know if it will come back to me!
I hurt so much for the friend!
He is sick, when will he get well?
Example 3
“Garīd boš, ay yerman ēllaš
kóm kontenēr-hé mew mālē,
Šīn al-ḥabī bnon bibrēyo:
ad ob l’iréy demandare?”
(Kharcha of Yehuda Halevi)
– Translation
«You say, oh, little sisters,
How am I to stop my evil?
Without the friend I can not live:
Where should I go to look for him?
The jarchas, dialectal evidence of Spanish
In addition to the aforementioned characteristics that expose the particularities of these poetic forms, it is necessary to enhance this quality.
Each one of the jarchas represent, in themselves, an unequivocal sample of the various Mozarabic, Arabic, Hebrew, Hispano-Hebrew, Hispano-Arabic dialect variants and other linguistic manifestations present in Muslim Hispania between the 11th and 15th centuries.
This comes to be one of the most significant contributions of these «little poems». They are, literally, the most reliable language trace of each population that passed through Hispania at that time.
This particularity gives many research routes to philologists to delve into the formal studies of current Spanish.
References
Cerezo Moya, D. (2015). On jarchas, glosses and other misappropriations. Spain: Virtual Cervantes. Retrieved from: cvc.cervantes.es.
The Mozarabic jarchas (S.f.). (N/a): Illusionism. Recovered from: ilusionismosocial.org
García Gómez, E. (S. f.). Brief history of the jarchas. (N/a): Jarchas.net. Recovered from: jarchas.net.
Garcia Gomez, E. (2016). Brief history of jarchas. Belgium: Jarchas.net. Recovered from: jarchas.net.
jarcha. (S.f.). (N/a): Wikipedia. Recovered from: es.wikipedia.org.