The finest labor of poetic translation I have seen in many years.... An entire revelation.

This is a comprehensive anthology of what is arguably the most powerful body of Jewish literature in the post-biblical canon. Publication of this work makes available to a general and scholarly readership alike the richness, humour, grace and wisdom of this long-buried treasure of world literature.

To the Reader xxi Acknowledgments xxiii Introduction 1 PART ONE: Muslim Spain (c. 950-c. 1140) DUNASH BEN LABRAT 23 Fragment 24 Blessing for a Wedding 24 Drink, He Said 24 THE WIFE OF DUNASH 27 Will Her Love Remember? 27 YITZHAQ IBN MAR SHA'UL 28 A Fawn Sought in Spain 28 YOSEF IBN AVITOR 30 Lament for the Jews of Zion 31 A Curse 32 A Plea 33 Hymn for the New Year 33 YITZHAQ IBN KHALFOUN 35 Love in Me Stirs 35 A Gift of Cheese 36 SHMU'EL HANAGID 37 On Fleeing His City 38 The Miracle at Sea 40 The Apple 44 The Gazelle 45 Jasmine 45 In Fact I Love That Fawn 45 Mixed in Spain 46 Your Years Are Sleep 46 The House of Prayer 47 The Critique 48 On Lifting the Siege 49 The War with Yaddayir 50 On the Death of Isaac, His Brother 53 First War 58 I'd Suck Bitter Poison 59 Delay Your Speech 59 The Rich 59 People Welcome the Rich 60 If You Leave a Long-Loved Friend 60 You Who'd Be Wise 60 When You're Desperate 61 It's Heart That Discerns 61 He'll Bring You Trouble 61 Could Kings Right a People Gone Bad 61 What's Familiar Is Sometimes Distanced 62 One Who Works and Buys Himself Books 62 Three Things 62 Soar, Don't Settle 62 Man's Wisdom Is in What He Writes 63 Be Glad, She Said 63 The Multiple Troubles of Man 63 Gazing through the Night 64 Earth to Man 65 The Child at One or Two 65 I Quartered the Troops for the Night 66 Luxuries Ease 66 Why Repeat the Sins 67 At the Treasury 67 Know of the Limbs 67 You Mock Me Now 68 Time Defies and Betrays 68 The Market 68 YOSEF IBN HASDAI 70 The Qasida 71 SHELOMO IBN GABIROL 74 Truth Seekers Turn 75 I'm Prince to the Poem 76 Prologue to The Book of Grammar 76 They Asked Me as though They Were Mystified 77 See the Sun 78 On Leaving Saragossa 78 My Heart Thinks as the Sun Comes Up 81 Now the Thrushes 81 Winter with Its Ink 82 The Garden 82 The Field 83 The Bee 83 I'd Give Up My Soul Itself 84 Be Smart with Your Love 84 All in Red 85 You've Stolen My Words 85 The Altar of Song 85 The Pen 86 If You'd Live among Men 86 I Am the Man 86 Heart's Hollow 88 I Love You 89 Before My Being 90 Three Things 90 I Look for You 91 Open the Gate 91 The Hour of Song 92 Send Your Spirit 92 Angels Amassing 93 And So It Came to Nothing 94 He Dwells Forever 95 Haven't I Hidden Your Name 97 Lord Who Listens 98 I've Made You My Refuge 98 You Lie in My Palace 99 From Kingdom's Crown 99 YITZHAQ IBN GHIYYAT 111 My Wandering 112 YOSEF IBN SAHL 114 The Fleas 114 Your Poem, My Friend 115 A Complaint about the Rich 115 LEVI IBN ALTABBAAN 117 Utter His Oneness 117 Exposed 118 BAHYA IBN PAQUDA 119 Duties of the Heart 119 MOSHE IBN EZRA 121 Weak with Wine 122 The Garden 123 Bring Me My Cup 123 A Shadow 123 The Fawn 124 The Garden, the Miser 124 The Pen 125 Heart's Desire 125 That Bitter Day 127 Let Man Remember 127 The Dove 127 Why Does Time Hound Me So 128 Ancient Graves 128 If You See Me 129 Ivory Palaces 129 The World 130 My Heart's Secret 130 I Roused My Thoughts from Slumber 130 Let Man Wail 132 On the Death of His Son 132 The Blind 133 The Gazelle's Sigh 133 Gold 134 The Day to Come 134 At the Hour of Closing 135 YOSEF IBN TZADDIQ 137 A Wedding Night's Consolation 137 Lady of Grace 139 SHELOMO IBN TZAQBEL 141 Lines Inscribed on an Apple 142 Note to a Suitor Now Perplexed 142 A Fawn with Her Lashes 142 YEHUDA HALEVI 143 That Night a Gazelle 145 A Doe Washes 146 If Only Dawn 146 That Day while I Had Him 146 Another Apple 146 To Ibn al-Mu'allim 147 If Only I Could Give 147 Epithalamium 149 When a Lone Silver Hair 149 If Time 150 Inscriptions on Bowls 150 Four Riddles 150 Departure 151 On Friendship and Time 152 Slaves of Time 154 Heal Me, Lord 154 True Life 154 The Morning Stars 155 His Thresholds 155 Where Will I Find You 155 You Knew Me 156 A Doe Far from Home 156 A Dove in the Distance 157 You Slept, Then Trembling Rose 158 Love's Dwelling 158 Lord, 159 If Only I Could Be 160 Won't You Ask, Zion 162 My Heart Is in the East 164