A fountain surges from my verse’s house
Sa‘adia Longo
End of the 16th Century
A fountain surges from my verse’s house.
Its flowing waters quench the thirst of men—
A fountain from the rock of perfect rhyme,
With waters cold to please the yearning man—
A flow unending from the house of rhyme
Moistening the throats of longing souls.
My song mellifluous appears to flow
To mouths of thirsty, yearning, longing men.
Translated by .
Raymond P.
Scheindlin
Credits
Saadia Longo, “A fountain surges from my verse’s house (Hebrew)” (Poem, Salonika, end of the 16th century). Published in: Dov Jarden, “A Collection of Poems by R. Seadya Longo (Hebrew),” Sefunot: Studies and Sources on the History of the Jewish Communities in the East vol. 12 (1971): 81–122:114–115.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.
You may also like
I sinned, so Time has weighed me down with chains
I sinned, so Time has weighed me down with chains;
therefore I can’t attend you in your joy.
But though my chariots—my feet—are slow,
Do not refuse the wish of your anointed (Psalms 132:10).
…
Head of the Year
World, they say it is your birthday,
a thousand years for each day of genesis
and we are using you up. But they have promised
that the next one will be better.
Oh End of Days, with your new earth
a…
Nicolo-Peccavi, or The Dreyfus Affair at Carpentras
It was, in fact, our aunt who had commissioned the bus. Madame Léa Josué Chanaan was our aunt and we called her Aunt Chanaan, just as we called her husband, Monsieur Josué Chanaan, our uncle, although…
You may also like
I sinned, so Time has weighed me down with chains
I sinned, so Time has weighed me down with chains;
therefore I can’t attend you in your joy.
But though my chariots—my feet—are slow,
Do not refuse the wish of your anointed (Psalms 132:10).
…
Head of the Year
World, they say it is your birthday,
a thousand years for each day of genesis
and we are using you up. But they have promised
that the next one will be better.
Oh End of Days, with your new earth
a…
Nicolo-Peccavi, or The Dreyfus Affair at Carpentras
It was, in fact, our aunt who had commissioned the bus. Madame Léa Josué Chanaan was our aunt and we called her Aunt Chanaan, just as we called her husband, Monsieur Josué Chanaan, our uncle, although…