Selected Poems (Engelse vertaling)

11 JEHUDAH HALEVI

But to-do His will be strong as a leopard,
Swift as a roe, and mighty as a lion.
Ps. 46,3. And let not thine heart be shaken in the heart
of the seas,

isa. 54,10. When thou beholdest mountains move and
totter,

jer. 38,12. And seamen with hands limp as rags,¹
And wise craftsmen standing dumb,²
Which joyfully went face forward,
But turn their backs ashamed;
And only the ocean before thee for a haven,
And no refuge for thee, but snares,
And the sails quiver and shake,
And the beams stagger and strain,
And the hand of the wind playeth with the
waters

Like men lifting sheaves in the threshing;
And now it maketh of them threshing-floors,
And anon it maketh of them stacks of sheaves.
When they prevail they come like lions,
And when they faint they creep like snakes,
The last chasing the first,
jer. 8,17. Like adders which will not be charmed,
Ex. 15,10. And the mighty ship falleth like an atom by
isa. 33,21. the blow of a mighty one,

Isa. 10,34.
Ezek. 16.47.

Play on words, מלחים (seamen) מלדזים (rags).
See play on words in the Hebrew text.