Selected Poems (Engelse vertaling)

21 JEHUDAH HALEVI

10

ON THE SEA.
II

Hath the flood come again and made the

world a waste
So that one cannot see the face of the dry
land,

And no man is there and no beast and no
bird?

isa. 50,11. Have they all come to an end and lain down
in sorrow?¹

To see even mountain or marsh would be a

rest for me,
And the desert itself would be sweet.
But I look on every side and there is nothing
But only water and sky and ark,
Job 41.23-24. And Leviathan making the abyss to boil,
So that one deemeth the deep to be hoary.
And the heart of the sea concealeth the ship
As though she were a stolen thing in the sea's
hand.

And the sea rageth and my soul exulteth—
For to the sanctuary of her God she draweth
near.

¹  The text has ושכנו מעצבה, but reference to Isa. 50,11
will show that it should read ושכבו.