Kad ja podjoh na Bembašu

Kad ja pođoh na Bembašu 1. Kad ja pođoh na Bembašu, Na Bembašu na vodu. // Ja povedoh bijelo janje,    Bijelo janje sa sobom // 2. Sve djevojke, Bembašanke, Na vratima stajahu. Samo moja mila draga, Na demirli pendžeru. Samo moja mila draga, Na visoku pendžeru. 3. Ja joj rekoh dobro veče, Dobro veče djevojče. // Ona meni dođ' do veče,    Dođ' do veče, dilberče. // 4. Ja ne odoh istu večer, Već ja odoh sutradan. // Ali moja mila draga,    Za drugog se udala. //

When I went down to Bembaša 1. When I went down to Bembaša To Bembaša, to the water I brought with me a little lamb Little lamb I brought with me 2. All the girls from Bembaša, Stood there on the gate. Just my sweetheart, Stood on her high window.     3. I wished her good evening, Good evening, girl. She said to me to come in the evening, Come in the evening, my darling. 4. I didn't go that evening like she told me, I came there the very next day. But my darling sweetheart, Was married to another man.

Notes

It's an old traditional, one of the most famous in Bosnia, but few people know that it's actually a sefardic melody. When the jews were persecuted, chased away by the Inquisition from Spain and Portugal, many of them flew to the Ottoman Empire and specifically, in this case, to the Balkans. They brought us their cultural heritage and here's one exemple of the beautiful mixture with the local culture.

A dead website said:

The song "Kad ja pođoh na Bentbašu" is one of our most popular sevdalinkas. This song speaks about the famous location in Sarajevo, Bentbaša, which is often pronounced as Bembaša in songs and amongst the people. The origin of this word is from the Turkish word bent which means dam. Indeed, from 1462 to 1875 there was a dam in Miljacka, in the vicinity of Šeher-Ćehaja's bridge, which was built by the founder of Sarajevo, Isa-beg Ishaković in 1462.

It is equally important to emphasize that the original melody for this song was most probably a spiritual Sephardic song which is still sometimes performed (there are opinions that the music for this song comes from theTurkish military march "Vatan Marşi" composed by Rif'at Bey in 1877). It is also interesting that this popular sevdalinka was performed in the German film "Die Letze Brücke" (The last bridge), which strongly influenced the spread of its popularity.

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• Nedžad Salković