Of a Repentant Sinner

Daniel Levi de Barrios

ca. 1665

Already (Lord) with humility,
fearing my perdition,
in a sea of contrition
I seek port in Thy pity.
Against Thy immense goodness
I sinned. My sorrow warns me,
that of the error of Thy offending
my soul has already repented
by discovering death in life
and by searching for life in death.
Blindly (my God) I offended Thee,
and today that I see in Thee my well-being,
devoutly I acclaim Thee.
Have compassion on me.
I die to live in Thee,
weeping over my blindness,
certain that with humility,
grace I shall find in Thy love,
since however great my doing ill,
Thy mercy (Lord) is greater still.
Take note of my weeping,
open the door of forgiveness,
for just from seeing it open,
in Thy clemency I trust.
Pardon me for my folly,
for I return to Thy obedience,
be moved by the penitence
with which I entrust myself to Thy love.
Consider not my offense
But Thy clemency alone.
Regretful for my sinning
I return to Thee knowing
that what in me is offending,
in Thee (Lord) is forgiving.
And thus I do not doubt of finding
benevolent forgiveness in Thee,
since although, having thus offended Thee,
my heart senses that,
more certain in Thee is the forgiving
than in me the contrition.

Translated by
David
Herman
.

Credits

Daniel Levi de Barrios, “De un Pecador Arrepentido (Of a Repentant Sinner),” in Flor de Apolo by Miguel de Barrios (i.e. Daniel Levi de Barrios) (Bruxelles: Baltasar Vivien, 1665), 168–69. Republished in: Antología Sefaradí, 1492–1700: Respuesta Literaria de Los Hebreos Españoles a La Expulsión de 1492, ed. María del Carmen Artigas (Madrid: Editorial Verbum, 1997), 121–122.

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

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Creator Bio

Daniel Levi de Barrios

1635–1701

A poet and playwright, Daniel Levi (Miguel) de Barrios was considered the greatest poet among Western Sephardic Jews. He was born in Montilla, Andalucía, to a family of New Christians. In the 1650s, he returned to Judaism in Livorno. For some time, however, he lived as a Catholic in Brussels, which was under Spanish rule, and he received the rank of captain in the Spanish army. In 1662, de Barrios settled in Amsterdam but occasionally traveled to Brussels, despite the prohibition imposed by the Sephardic Jewish community. He also became a follower of Shabbetai Tzvi. Some of de Barrios’s books were published in Brussels under the name Miguel Barrios, his Christian name, to the dismay of the syndics of the Amsterdam Jewish community. His poetry was influenced by the Spanish Baroque style. Among his writings are historical works about the Sephardic community of Amsterdam, with attention to its personalities and institutions.

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