Where will you camp, O my ibex?

Isaac ‘Uziel

Early 17th Century

A love song

Where will you camp, O my ibex, for whom I yearn?
Where will you drip the droplets of your wine and your dew—O formidable one?
If you bring up your beauty to heaven on high,
You will dim the constellations Pleiades and Orion—O formidable one!
On the day when my love for you raised a flag inside me, daylight and night met.1
My thoughts were all excited to take shelter in the shade of your lovely roof.
O, how they rushed to keep their distance from your sun-like light, lest they see it,
For you rule over Venus and the moon,
When the stars of your beauty flicker—O formidable one!
Your locks of hair, pressed down like a fishhook, are like a Cushite or like Kedar,
Your temple, like a split pomegranate, is full of fragrance like a blossom.
You are beautiful like the sun over a palace, bright like a floor of marble and mother-of-pearl,
The very heavens are like dust, or like a drop from a bucket,
In comparison to the shining glory of your glow—O formidable one!
Your beloved has extended his hands to draw the image of your silhouette in my home.
O, how your hands have worked with flax, and they have woven nets,
And entrapped my spirit, my soul, in the midst of the stormy sea and its waves.
If you plunder the captive, who has been caught in your trap,
How will lovers yearn for your love?—O formidable one!
Your enmeshed tresses of hair are darker and blacker than a raven,
Like night when the moon is gone, when it hides its light, and like the evening shadows,
They are encamped around your head like flags, and they steal my innards, my organs.2
The walls of my heart are turning dark, unless you have mercy for me!
I am bound up by the fetters of your strands of hair—O formidable one!
Your eyes are venomous vipers, which slay the people who have been entrapped in their prison,
The sun’s brightness is in your right eye, and the moon is wrapped up in your left eye,
Oh, how the glow on your cheek is like doves on streams of water!
If you raise up your eyes, O hind,
You will steal the hearts of all that see you—O formidable one!
Your forehead shines with a glow like electrum, and with royal-purple hairs,
A row of emeralds with malachite, orderly like a garden of cumin,
It wakes up the people who are dying and being killed, and the dead who dwell in the grave.
And for the poor man standing at the gate of your love, who has fallen into the roast,
The fire of your love does not cool down—O formidable one! [ . . . ]
Your nose is like a sapphire brick, above your mouth it is like a palanquin.
The various types of beautiful gold cannot be adequately compared to it.
It puts to shame the stars of the heavenly spheres, the glows and flashes of heaven.
Have compassion for the one who trembles in fear of wasting away in the grave.
Blow your spirit into his nostrils—O formidable one!
My flaming fire blazes around me, and my heart burns inside me,
Such that my innards quake deep within me, like the quaking of the trees in a forest.
The disturbance inside me is because of you! My spirit is a storm because of you!
What do you think? Why, for what reason, must you kill me?
I am thirsty for the drops of your rain—O formidable one!

Translated by
Gabriel
Wasserman
.

Other work by ‘Uziel: Sefer ma‘aneh lashon (1627).

Notes

[I.e., my sleep became disrupted due to my love, so the distinction between day and night became irrelevant.—Trans.]

[In biblical Hebrew, the innards are considered the seat of emotions, so the poet is saying, “The love that I feel for you has taken control of my emotions.”—Trans.]

Credits

Isaac ‘Uziel, “Where will you camp, O my ibex? (Hebrew)” (Poem, Amsterdam, Early 17th Century). Published in: Ephraim Hazan, ha-shirah ha-ʻIvrit bi-tsefon afrikah (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1995; 2003 online), 235–237.

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

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Creator Bio

Isaac ‘Uziel

1600–1622

Born in Fez, Isaac ben Abraham ‘Uziel fled famine in Morocco in 1604/5 and settled in Oran, Algeria, where he obtained a rabbinic post. In 1606, ‘Uziel made his way to Amsterdam. Initially, he earned a living as a teacher (notable among his students was the famous rabbi, printer, and diplomat Menasseh Ben Israel). In 1610, he was appointed rabbi of the Neveh Shalom congregation. In his sermons, ‘Uziel questioned the sincerity of some former New Christians’ reversion to Judaism and complained about a general lack of religious observance, eventually leading to a significant secession from his congregation. A skilled grammarian, ‘Uziel wrote a grammatical work that was published posthumously. He also translated from Spanish a famous collection of legends of fables known in Latin as Historia septem sapientum (Heb. Mishle Aristo). A prolific and respected poet, ‘Uziel wrote highly varied works, most of which remain in manuscript. Influenced by the traditions of Spanish and Italian Hebrew poetry, some of his poems were included in the liturgy of North African Jewry.

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