A Comet Portending War

Yakob Yoná

1910

1

I have seen other stars
with a tail before,
but the people were frightened
by this awesome torch.
As an omen of war
it does sadden my heart.
Let us turn to our God,
let us try to please Him.

2

This astonishing comet
is an omen of war.
People say
it is noxious.1
If we could have another
R. Daniel Mordoch [?],
he would know in twelve hours
what this omen portends.

3

When the clock reaches midnight,
as the planet appears,
we start trembling in fear,
all of us standing here.
Nobody goes home
though it was dark around.
Seeing so many people,
one might think a war broke out.

4

Seeing crowds at the quayside
looking at the sky together,
Those who are joining later
are directly captivated.
Everybody has ideas
and is eager to announce them,
but it is the older people
who have truly understood this.

5

I am going to explain it,
I have never been mistaken:
it is always a leap year
or a year with a zero.2
God does not forget us ever
and the Golden Calf remembers.
“Let man not think
I am distracted.”

6

The young have never
seen this omen,
and it plunged them
into terror.
All turned to God
in full repentance,
this is why
the comet appeared.

7

God shows miracles
every moment,
which we hardly
even notice.
God brought us to drown near seashore,3
but we, Jews, have not yet uttered, hayom harat olam.4

Translated by
Olga
Borovaya
.

Notes

[It was discovered that cyanogen, a toxic gas, was present in the comet’s tail, which caused an unfounded panic.—Trans.]

[5670 (1910) was a leap year in the Hebrew calendar, which means it had two Adars. Most leap years do not end with a zero.—Trans.]

[A reference to the biblical crossing of the Red Sea.—Trans.]

[Hebrew for “Today is the birthday of the world,” a prayer recited during Rosh Hashanah services.—Trans.]

Credits

Yakob Yoná, “A Comet Portending War,” El tresoro de Yakov Yoná (Salonica, 1910), pp. 472–73.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 7.

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Creator Bio

Yakob Yoná

1847–1922

Yakob Abraham Yoná was a renowned collector, writer, and publisher of Ladino koplas (couplets) and Sephardic folklore. Born in the southern European reaches of the Ottoman Empire in Monastir (today Bitola, North Macedonia), he spent his life in Salonika, the great capital of Ottoman Sephardic culture. In addition to his literary output, Yoná worked as a combibador, a Sephardic messenger sent to invite guests to celebrations through an oral performance, often with spontaneous poetry. The numerous chapbooks of Ladino ballads he printed attracted the attention of the celebrated Spanish philologist Ramón Menéndez Pidal. Yoná’s koplas, originally a genre of rabbinic poetry for the masses, include a discussion of the 1910 visitation of Halley’s Comet, which came into naked-eye view in mid-April. Like many sensationalist publications, Yoná’s poem interprets the comet’s appearance as an omen of wars and other divinely wrought calamities to make people return to God’s ways.

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