Selected Poems (Engelse vertaling)

20 JEHUDAH HALEVI

9

ON THE SEA.
I

My God, break not the breakers of the sea,
Isa. 41,27. Nor say Thou to the deep, 'Be dry',

Until I thank Thy mercies, and I thank
The waves of the sea and the wind of the west;
Let them waft me to the place of the yoke of

Thy love,
And bear far from me the Arab yoke.
And how shall my desires not find fulfilment,
Seeing I trust in Thee, and Thou art pledged
to me?¹

¹  See play on words in the Hebrew rhymes of lines 6
and 8.