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.

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Creator Bio

Sa‘adia Longo

b. ca. 1520

Sa‘adia Longo was probably born in Istanbul. He served as a cantor in the Castilian congregation of Salonika. As he testifies in his own writings, Longo engaged in writing poetry from a young age. A collection of his eulogies and poems, Seder zemanim (Order of Times), was published in 1594. Hundreds of his poems and letters remain in manuscript.

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