Selected Poems (Engelse vertaling)

30 JEHUDAH HALEVI

16

ON THE SEA
VIII

Call greeting unto daughters and kindred,
Peace to brothers and to sisters,
From the captive of hope who is possessed
By the sea, and hath placed his spirit in the

hand of the winds,
Thrust by the hand of the west into the hand

of the east:
This one passeth to lead on, and that one to
thrust back.

i Sam. 20,3. Between him and death is but a step,

Aye, between them but the thickness of a
plank;

Buried alive in a coffin of wood,

Upon no floor, with no four cubits of earth,¹

nor even with less.
He sitteth—he cannot stand upon his feet,
He lieth down—he cannot stretch them forth;
Sick and afraid because of the heathen
And because of the marauders and the winds,
job 36,12. The pilot and the mariner, and all their
rabble—

They are the rulers and captains there.

¹  The minimum amount required for burial.