Selected Poems (Engelse vertaling)

16 JEHUDAH HALEVI

isa. 13,21. And though wild beasts abide in her, and dole-
ful creatures,
Was it not so she was given of old to the
fathers—

All of her the heritage of thorns and thistles?

Gen. 13.17. But they walked through the length and the
breadth of her
As one walketh in an orchard among the
green boughs,

i chron.29,15. Though they came as strangers and sojourn-
ers, seeking

Gen. 23,4. But burial place and a lodging there, like way-
farers.

And there they walked before the Lord
And learnt the straight paths.
And they said that here arise the shades
And those who lie under the bars of earth

come forth,
And that here the bodies rejoice,
And the souls return to their rest.

See now, yea see, my friend, and understand

Prov. 22,5. And turn aside from the lure of thorns and
snares,

And let not the wisdom of the Greeks beguile
thee,

Which hath no fruit, but only flowers—
Or her fruit is, that the earth was never out-
stretched

isa. 40.22. Nor the tents of the sky spread out,

Nor was any beginning to all the work of creation
Nor will any end be to the renewal of the
months.¹

¹ A reference to the doctrine of the eternity of matter.