Selected Poems (Engelse vertaling)

154 JEHUDAH HALEVI

How shall it any more be sweet to me
To eat or drink, while dogs all unrestrained

Thy tender whelps devouring I must see?

Or how shall light of day at all be sweet

Unto mine eyes, while still I see them killed—

Thine eagles—caught in ravens' mouths for
meat?

O cup of sorrow! gently! let thy stress
Desist a little! for my reins are filled

Already, and my soul with bitterness.

I, calling back Oholah's memory,

Drink thine hot poison; and remembering

Oholibah, I drain the dregs of thee.

Zion! O perfect in thy beauty! found

With love bound up, with grace encompass-
ing,

With thy soul thy companions' souls are
bound:

They that rejoice at thy tranquillity,
And mourn the wasteness of thine overthrow

And weep at thy destruction bitterly;

They from the captive's pit, each one that
waits