Microscopic derivation of the pion coupling to heavy-light mesons

The Goldberger--Treiman relation for heavy--light systems is derived in the context of a quark model. As a paradigmatic example, the case of ${\bar D}\to {\bar D}' \pi$ is studied in detail. The fundamental role played by the pion two-component wave function, in the context of the Salpeter equation, is emphasized.