«El deśechar el mundo el este es llaves de ‘olam haḅá»: La importancia del diálogo en la versión sefardí del Ben hamélej vehanaźir (Salónica, 1849)

[EN] Throughout the Middle Ages, the story of Buddha‒known in the Christian world as Barlaam and Josaphat‒was introduced to the European literatures by means of numerous versions. The present article deals with the Sephardic version of this literary classic with the title Sefer ben ha-melekh ve-ha-n...

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Bibliographic Details
Author: Smid, Katja
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2024
Country:España
Institution:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repository:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/379884
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/379884
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Story of Buddha
Sefer ben ha-melekh ve-ha-nazir
Yitsḥak Bekhor Amarachi
Ladino literature
Dialogue
Salonika
Historia de Buda
Literatura judeoespañola
Género dialógico
Salónica
Arab literature
Description
Summary:[EN] Throughout the Middle Ages, the story of Buddha‒known in the Christian world as Barlaam and Josaphat‒was introduced to the European literatures by means of numerous versions. The present article deals with the Sephardic version of this literary classic with the title Sefer ben ha-melekh ve-ha-nazir (Salonika, 1849) and was translated from Hebrew to Judeo-Spanish by the Salonikan Rabbi Yitsḥak Bekhor Amarachi, translator and author of several Judeo-Spanish works of moral and didactic content. This contribution is circumscribed to the study of the dialogue within the narrative framework. Illustrative passages of the Judeo-Spanish version have been transcribed from Hebrew Rashi letters to Latin characters and have been edited in order to focus on the study of the dialogue which is a fundamental narrative technique used in the frame story of this work. Through conversations between the protagonists, whose voices move the story along, we become acquainted with the curious story of an idolatrous king and his son who receives a life lesson in a long conversation with a monk starting his spiritual path that leads him to become a sage, to get closer to God and to merit the world to come.