{"collection":"Judaism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/jud/sig/sig05.htm","path":"jud/sig/sig05.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/jud/sig/sig05.htm","text":"Selected Religious Poems of Solomon ibn Gabirol, tr. by Israel Zangwill, [1923]\nMy soul shall declare to Thee Thou art her former\n \u00a0\u00a0And shall Thee as her maker, O God, testify,\n At Thy word 'Be, O Soul' did she take on existence,\n \u00a0\u00a0And from naught didst Thou draw her as light from the eye.\nOf Thee she shall own and affirm, hand uplifted,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u2019Twas Thou that didst breathe her in me, and as due\n For that work she shall pour out her thanks and bear witness\n \u00a0\u00a0That to me she was given Thy bidding to do.\nShe serves Thee as handmaid while yet in the body,\n \u00a0\u00a0And the day she returns to the land whence she came,\n In Thee will she dwell, for in Thee is her being,\n \u00a0\u00a0Doth she rise, doth she sit, Thou art with her the same.\nShe was Thine when unborn ere the day of her breathing,\n \u00a0\u00a0With wisdom and knowledge by Thee she was fed,\n And to Thee for her ordinance looks, and subsistence,\n \u00a0\u00a0Indebted to Thee for her water and bread.\nHer gaze is to Thee, and in Thee is her hoping\n \u00a0\u00a0When like novice in child-birth she cries in affright.\n O take her torn heart as a sacrifice offered,\n \u00a0\u00a0And her ribs lacerated for fiery rite.\nTo Thee let her pour out her tears as drink-off\u2019ring,\n \u00a0\u00a0Let the breath of her sighing as incense-cloud be,\n At her gate and her doorway she watches with prayer,\n \u00a0\u00a0She is burning like flame with her passion for Thee.\nShe must ever approach Thee as servant his master,\n \u00a0\u00a0Or as handmaiden looks to her mistress\u2019s eye,\n She must spread out her palms in request and petition\n \u00a0\u00a0And turn herself humbly to Thee in her cry.\nFor call Thee she must, nor endure to be silent,\n \u00a0\u00a0Like a bird in the net her one hope is in flight,\n In the depth of the night she must rise and keep vigil,\n \u00a0\u00a0For her work is Thy works to declare and recite.\nFor Thee she must pine and of Thee make entreaty,\n \u00a0\u00a0Her hand must be clean and as stainless her thought.\n Her breach do Thou heal, be her hope and her helper,\n \u00a0\u00a0When she draws nigh redeem her, her sin count as naught.\nBehold her affliction, and hark to her weeping,\n \u00a0\u00a0In the sphere of the soul she with Thee is alone,\n Repay and restore her, attend to her anguish,\n \u00a0\u00a0When her sobs and her tears her backslidings bemoan.\n\u00a0\u00a0Bemock, O Almighty, the foes that bemock her,\n Avenge with due vengeance her insults and shame,\n \u00a0\u00a0In her stress be a rock of support \u2018gainst her foeman,\n Nor yield up the child Thou to manhood didst frame.\n\u00a0\u00a0No enemy came, whose reproach could be borne with,\n No cruel one hunted her down in her track,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u2019Twas the friends of her household betrayed her\u2014her passions\u2014\n \u2019Twas her comrade who bloodily stabbed in the back.\n\u00a0\u00a0I ever am seeking my body\u2019s best welfare,\n Yet it in return would my spirit undo.\n \u00a0\u00a0Ah, truly the fruit of the tree in its root is,\n The proverb \"Like mother, like daughter\" is true.","title":"Selected Religious Poems of Solomon ibn Gabirol: 2. My So...","type":"page"}