Selected Poems (Engelse vertaling)

41 JEHUDAH HALEVI

To seek their favour

And forsake God's will,
To betray the Creator

And serve His creatures?—
The face of the morning

Would be black to his eyes,¹The cup of sweetness
Bitter to his mouth
Wearied and toiling,

Oppressed and weak,
And longing for Carmel

And the City of the Forests,²To seek forgiveness

At the peaceful graves
Of the ark and the tablets

That are buried there.—3
I shall hope to pass thither,
I shall fall on their grave,
And mine eyes, at their ruin,

Shall break forth into torrents,
And all my thoughts

Trembling unto Sinai,
Mine heart and mine eyes

Unto Mount Abarim!
And how should I not weep
Ezek. 47,2. And pour forth tears,

And hope therefrom

The quickening of the dead?
Since there are the Cherubim
With the written tablets—

¹  See the play on words in the Hebrew text.

^2 a Kirjath Ye'arim.