Selected Poems (Engelse vertaling)

INTRODUCTION xxiii

imitation of other peoples, in order to force the Hebrew
language into their metres."

The Rabbi: That is because we were and remain
froward. Instead of being satisfied with our true su-
periority, we corrupted the structure of the language,
which is built on harmony, and created discord....
.... In matters of poetry we suffered what befell our
forefathers, concerning whom it is written, They ming-
led among the Gentiles and learned their works". (Psalm
cvi, 35).

Thus Jehudah Halevi considered rhyme and
metre as foreign to the Hebrew language, and
unnecessary to Hebrew poetry, which can exist
in perfection quite independently of such ties.
It may well be that modern Hebrew poetry will
eventually find the inspiration of its Renaissance
in the rejection of these bonds, and in the re-
sumption of those earlier forms which offered
fuller freedom to the Hebraic genius. And yet,
with the inconsistency which may be allowed
to great poets, Halevi uses both rhyme and
metre with perfect and invariable success. His
range was remarkable, though Heine somewhat
exaggerates when he writes of him:

Der in heiligen Sirventen,
Madrigalen und Terzinen,
Kanzonetten und Ghaselen
Ausgegossen alle Flammen.