Selected Poems (Engelse vertaling)

106 JEHUDAH HALEVI

61

YE CURTAINS OF SOLOMON

Ye curtains of Solomon, how, amid the tents
of Kedar,

Are ye changed? Ye have no form, no beauty!

"The multitudes which dwelt aforetime in our
midst,

Have left us a desolation, a broken ruin,
unprotected—

The holy vessels have gone into exile and be-
come profane,

And how can ye ask for beauty of a lily
among thorns?"

Rejected of their neighbours, but sought of
their Lord,

isa. 40,26. He will call them each by name; not one
shall be missing.

Their beauty, as in the beginning, He shall
restore in the end,

And shall illume as the sevenfold light their
lamp which is darkened.