Selected Poems (Engelse vertaling)

INTRODUCTION xxiii

Would I might see his face within my heart!
Mine eyes would never ask to look beyond.

The mystery and wonder of God and the Universe
create a theme for many poems of great beauty,
such as the one beginning:

0 Lord, where shall I find Thee?

All hidden and exalted is Thy place;
And where shall I not find Thee?

Full of Thy glory is the infinite space.

And further:

Longing, I sought Thy presence;
Lord, with my whole heart did I call and pray,
And going out toward Thee,

1 found Thee corning to me on the way,
Yea, in Thy wonders' might as clear to see

As when, within the shrine, I looked for Thee.

It is unnecessary to stress the point that
Halevi's songs to Zion are his most beautiful
works, displaying the deepest of his emotions.
The greatest of these songs (No. 2 of this volume)
is chanted to-day in Jewish congregations all
over the world, on the Ninth of Ab, the fatal
date on which, first by Babylon and again
656 years later by Rome, Jerusalem was laid
waste. The ruling forces of the poet's life,
the love and hope expressed in this Ode, have
won him the sympathy and recognition of his
posterity through the ages.