Selected Poems (Engelse vertaling)

34 JEHUDAH HALEVI

And such signs and wonders and fame,
That the world is filled with the glory of His
memory.

Even her river is of the rivers of Eden,
Lam. 4,2. And the goodness of her soil may be weighed
Gen. 13,10. against the garden of Eden.

We have tested her, and thus she is—yet my
heart

jet. c,14; 8,11. Refuseth those that give healing so lightly:
For I know that here the Divine Presence
turned aside,

jer. 14,8. Like a wayfarer, to the shade of the oak and
the terebinth,
But in Salem and Zion it is like one home-
born,

For there is the Torah, there the greatness,
The abode of judgment, the abode of mercy,
And there may a man hope for reward of
his toil.

Yea, that mountain was called of God the

Mount of His heritage:
He set it aside for sanctification like the
hallah.¹

He came down from the holiness of her unto
Babylon,

While Egypt was----------²

But when, from any of the lands, a man goeth up
Unto these, highest above the high is she to
him.

¹  The bread prepared for the sanctuary. See Levit.
24,5, and Num.15,20.

²  The remainder of the text of this line is missing.