Four Poems Yehudah Halevi
Wasserman, Michael
FOUR POEMS YEHUDAH HALEV1 Excerpt From A Wedding Song With joy I look At a dove beside the brook. Silver can be mined, But another like my dove As beautiful as Tirtzah, as Jerusalem Who will...
...Michael Wasserman is a writer living in Newton, Massachusetts...
...I will not fear or worship anything In my King's place...
...Where should she stray Living in tents, When here there is a camp inside my heart As broad as open arms, where she can stay...
...I've no faith in my medicine But wait and hope for Yours...
...TRANSLATED BY MICHAEL WASSERMAN To Know His Face I flee from this dry well to seek the Spring Of Life, to know His face...
...My herbs and potions, whether they Restore or poison, come from You...
...Her breasts have plundered my heart, Conjuring and testing Their secret spells beyond The Egyptian wizards' art...
...From them Your choir takes its cue To stir Your prayer house, sing to You The morning rite...
...The Physician's Prayer As He Drinks His Medicine Treat me, my God, and I'll be healed...
...Don't let Your anger scald me through...
...The original poems are from Selected Poems of Yehudah Halevi, The Jewish Publication Society, 1924...
...Silver can be mined, But another like my dove As beautiful as Tirtzah, as Jerusalem Who will ever find...
...If only I could see Him in my dreams I'd rest at last, never waking, Or find him in my heart, It would stop burning, breaking...
...All the Morning Stars The morning stars sing to You Who give them light, And angels changing watches, the guards Of day and night...
...You decide, not I, What kills and cures...
Vol. 5 • June 1980 • No. 6
