Selected Poems (Engelse vertaling)

106 JEHUDAH HALEVI

65

CREATURE, IMPULSE AND CREATOR

Why believe in fate wherein there is no truth?

(Ah me! my labour is great, and my day is
short).

Every man exhorteth his brother that he sin
not,

Saying, "Take heed to thyself, lest the Yezer¹tempt thee."

But if he himself should sin, he thinketh:

"What is there in the power of a man to
do?—

The creature and the Yezer are in the hand of
the Creator."

¹  The evil inclination. There is a play on three words
in the last line, יצור a Creature, יצר man's evil impulse,
יוצר the Creator.