Selected Poems (Engelse vertaling)

INTRODUCTION xxiii

that I here record my sincere thanks for the
privilegeof using the results of his critical labours.
The translation is in prose, with a tendency
towards rhythm, and following the original,
line by line; in some cases, however, there are
added alternative translations in verse. As
to the method of translating, only one remark
need be offered. It has always seemed to the
present translator at once unfair to a poet and
displeasing to his readers to divest verses of
their own peculiar dress. Thus in the Ode to
Zion there seemed no reason for omitting Jehudah
Halevi's reminiscence of Oholah and Oholibah,
in order to soften down a somewhat harsh
allusion. Nor, when rendering a love poem,
does it seem just to turn Jehudah Halevi's own
words:

Would that, after my death, unto mine ears should come

The sound of the golden bells upon thy skirts.

into:

I think that I shall hear, when I am dead

The rustle of thy gown, thy footsteps overhead.

To do these things may be attractive, but the
oriental flavour is lost, and the poet is made
to speak with the voice of a modern western
writer, while clearly he was neither western
nor modern.