Awake, My Fair
Awake, my fair, my love, awake,
So that I may gaze upon you!
And if one is eager to kiss your lips,
In your dreams this do you see,
Lo, then I myself of your dream
The interpreter will be.
Based on the translation by Alice Lucas that's reproduced on page 43 of A Treasury of Jewish Poetry: From Biblical Times to the Present, edited by Nathan and Marynn Ausubel (Crown Publishers, 1957).
The Mirror
Into my eyes he lovingly looked,
My arms about his neck were twined,
And in the mirror of my eyes,
What but his image did he find?
Upon my dark-hued eyes he pressed
His lips with breath of passion rare.
The rogue! 'Twas not my eyes he kissed;
He kissed his picture mirrored there.
Based on the translation by Emma Lazarus that's reproduced on page 45 of A Treasury of Jewish Poetry: From Biblical Times to the Present, edited by Nathan and Marynn Ausubel (Crown Publishers, 1957).
My Sweetheart's Dainty Lips
My sweetheart's dainty lips are red,
With ruby's crimson overspread;
His teeth are like a string of pearls;
Down his neck her clustering curls
In ebony hue vie with the night,
And over his features dances light.
The twinkling stars enthroned above
Are sisters to my dearest love.
We men should count it joy complete
To lay our service at his feet.
But oh what rapture is his kiss!
A forecast 'tis of heavenly bliss!
He Comes
He comes, O bliss!
Fly swiftly, you winds,
You odorous breezes,
And tell him how long
I've waited for this!
O happy that night,
When sunk on your breast,
Your kisses fast falling,
And drunken with love,
My troth I did plight.
Again my sweet friend
Embrace me close.
Yes, heaven does bless us,
And now you have won
My love without end.
Based on the translation by Emma Lazarus that's reproduced on page 45 of
A Treasury of Jewish Poetry: From Biblical Times to the Present, edited by Nathan and Marynn Ausubel (Crown Publishers, 1957).
O My Gazelle
O my gazelle, my lord,
let my grief be precious in your eyes
lest disaster overtake me.
Gentle, gentle, gentle with my blood,
for my well-being is in your hands alone.
May your heart be tender to the forlorn one
fasting and weeping because of your anger,
waiting for the manna of your favour -
manna, manna, manna for my hunger.
Oh, pay me my wages today.
When you laugh at my suffering,
I turn my tear-stained cheeks to you.
But you answer, "By my life,
no-one, no-one, no-one is in my trap
but those whom I killed unknowingly."
I struggle with my soul because of my boy:
if only he feared me, he might
give me back my slumber; he might
fly, fly, fly to me in my sleep,
and be caught in the mesh of my dreams.
When I ask for the nectar of his lips,
he turns red as the rising sun
until I see in his likeness
how, how, how the Aramean *
has turned into the likeness of an Edomite *.
His song pierces my inward parts.
He sings to fan my flames:
"Kiss my mouth - and no more, my friend.
Kiss, kiss, kiss my mouth,
and forget your melancholy, my love."
* In the second-last verse, the lines about the Aramean and the Edomite are a play on words: "the Aramean" in Jewish tradition refers to Lavan, whose name means "white"; "Edomite" also means "red". So those lines mean "how white turns into red."
Unusually, the last two lines of the poem are in Arabic.
(Penguin Book of Hebrew Verse 344-345)
Go to Judah Halevi's page.
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