A lovely fawn inspiring awe and love

Solomon Mazal Tov

Early 16th Century

A lovely fawn inspiring awe and love,
   Her eyes shoot darts that penetrate men’s
     hearts.
Her lips are like a scarlet thread, a rose
   Dotted with dabs of myrrh. Her face is
     bright as flame.
Her cheeks are beds for every fragrant herb,
   Proportioned and well-shaped like ivory
     palaces.
Censed with frankincense her body, and her clothes
   With cinnamon. Her mouth, a song of love,
Obscures the splendor of the sun, and yet
   Her sun illuminates the night,
Her hands are scepters made of gold
   That tear the covering of human hearts.
Her locks of hair are curled and twisted
   Into ringlets black as crows.
Her stature calls to mind the palm tree,
    (for next to you, the cedars seem like moss).
I saw her weeping bitterly, the tears
   Cascading down her cheeks like winter rain.
Why do you weep? I asked, and she replied,
    “Because my little ones are sad.
They weep in Babylon beside the rivers.
   Their lyres are hung on willow trees.
Their captors, mocking, order them to sing,
   And they, in tears, make this reply to them:
‘How can we sing our songs, when she
   Is desolate, devoid of passersby.
The crown of countries, land most beautiful
   Is smashed to bits as if by mallets.
The altar and the Levites’ sacred lyres
   Murmur bitterly and sadly,
Suspended for their sins; young priests
   Lament the loss of golden cherubim,
God’s Temple, and the great foundation stone,
   The ark, too, with its two hewn tablets,
    brought
By Moses, he most faithful in God’s household,
   To a people holy, loved, and dear.
Zion’s daughters downward hang their heads
   As they are led away into captivity.
Strapping youths, who might be hewn from precious stones
   Are dragged in dirt and forced to do the
    grinding.
A voice resounds in Ramah of a woman
   Wailing for her sons brought up with care
    and love.’
That is why I wail like the desert fowl—
   For owls and crows inhabit our ruined
    towns.
That’s why my tears make rivers overflow
   And turn the valleys into wells and cisterns.
Those tears may multiply and swarm like locusts,
   But never will their love be extinguished.”

Translated by
Raymond P.
Scheindlin
.

Credits

Solomon Mazal Tov, “A lovely fawn inspiring awe and love (Hebrew)” (Poem, Constantinople, 16th Century). Published in: Y. D. Markon, “A Collection of Poems from the Book ‘Shirim u-Zemiroth ve-Tishbahoth (Hebrew)’' Melilah: Manchester Journal of Jewish Studies vol. III–IV (1950): 255–75:262–263.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.

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Creator Bio

Solomon Mazal Tov

First Half of the 16th Century

Solomon Mazal Tov, a prolific poet, lived in Istanbul. His father may have been from Italy. Around seventy of his poems have reached us, the largest surviving corpus by a poet of his generation. Many Jews fleeing the Iberian Peninsula arrived in Constantinople during Mazal Tov’s lifetime, and his poetry demonstrates the influence of the Spanish tradition. Mazal Tov wrote secular poetry—including a poem dedicated to the Ottoman sultan Suleiman (possibly in honor of his ascent to the throne in 1520) and another about chess—as well as liturgical poetry. His poems employ biblical language. In addition, Mazal Tov was a printer. His printing house produced seven books, and Mazal Tov composed approbations and recommendations for other works. References in his poetry suggest that he also composed a prose work about the 613 commandments, although this has not survived.

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