Selected Poems (Engelse vertaling)

93

JEHUDAH IIALEVI

45

ASLEEP IN THE BOSOM OF YOUTH

Asleep in the bosom of youth, how long wilt
thou rest?

Know that boyhood is shaken off like tow.

Are the days of dawn for ever? Rise, go
forth—

Prov. 13,24. See, the angels of old age do chasten thee
betimes.

Then shake thyself from temporal things, as
birds

Cant. 5,2. That shake themselves from the drops of the
night.

Dart like a swallow to find release from thy
trespass,

Prov. 27.1. And from the happenings of the day which
rage like the ocean.

Pursue after thy King in the intimate com-
pany

jer. 31,11. Of souls that flow unto the goodness of the
Lord.