Selected Poems (Engelse vertaling)

6 JEHUDAH HALEVI

Ezek. 23,4. When I remember Oholah I drink thy fury,
19a. 51,17. And I recall Oholibah, and drain thy dregs.
Ps. 75,9. Zion! perfect in beauty! love and grace thou
Lam. 2,15. didst bind on to thee

Of olden time; and still the souls of thy com-

panions are bound up with thee.
It is they that rejoice at thy well-being, that
are in pain

Over thy desolation, and that weep over thy
ruin—

They that, from the pit of the captive, pant
toward thee, worshipping,
zeph. 2,11. Every one from his own place, toward thy

gates;

The flocks of thy multitude, which were ex-
iled and scattered
jer. 50,6. From mount to hill, but have not forgotten
thy fold;

i Sam. 15,27. Which grasp thy skirts and strengthen them-
Cant. 7,9. selves

To go up and take hold of the boughs of thy
palms.

Shinar and Pathros¹—were they equal unto

thee in their greatness?
Can they compare their vanity² to thy

Thummim and thy Urim?
And with whom could they compare thine
anointed Kings? and with whom

¹  Shinar refers to the moral and cultural achievements
of Bagdad, and Pathros to Byzantium, as representing
Mohammedan and Christian world-might.

²  The reference here is to religious superstition.