Dialogue of Adam and Eve
Antonio Enríquez Gómez
17th Century
Adam Speaks
Beautiful mistress mine,
upon whose snow at dawn
the rose is forming
on fields of mother of pearl.
Pure and lovely lily,
who amid coral protects itself
from the pure crystals
that the mountains hurl.
Your dove’s eyes
are to me, beloved wife,
two true compass norths
by which the soul is guided.
Your golden hair
resembles the ibexes
of the mountains which the centuries
will eruditely praise.
Your twin breasts
gamboling deer-like
graze among the lilies
amid valleys of hopes.
Enclosed and beautiful orchard
is your chaste sex,
beautiful flowering refuge
of the April of your charms.
The whiteness of the dawn
is your lovely throat
and of ten white lilies
your beautiful pale hands.
The mighty hand
on that plant alone
set a limit to the day
that shines from your face.
That prohibited fruit
held always in reserve,
to death us condemns
if the soul defiles it.
It is a wondrous tree
since it has amid its branches
secreted mysteries
that for God are reserved.
It is the Tree of Life,
whose grace conveys
intellectual delicacies,
to the souls.
Let us apply our lips
to its moral substance
but not to that of death
crowned with mother of pearl.
Although you see it as beautiful,
its pallid apple
contains a worm within it
that is fashioning your grave.
If we never touch
its rouged skin
we shall live eternally
in this sacred wood.
We shall be of this glory
the sovereign forms,
pure intelligences
of the alcázar above.
With glorious dominion,
you, queen, and I, monarch.
Illustrious pride we shall be
Of human creatures.
In peace we shall imitate
the Heavenly Hierarchy,
this eternal glory being
the crest of your house.
In gentle renewals,
learned nature
will send forth spring,
crowned with flowers.
All consists, wife,
of not touching the plant
that disguises its deadliness
behind a purple facade.
Apart from this precept,
all my kingdoms command,
for one does not refuse laurels
who has not denied the soul.
Open the split pink carnation
that guards your sweet pearls
and with musical conceits
my heart regale.
In the sunshine your beauty
is alive with hopes,
in May, it assists me,
in April, it protects me.
Surrendered, my free will
dedicates and devotes itself,
as amorous victim,
to the heaven of your grace.
Let me hear your loving words,
for two who idolize each other
drink up each other’s sighs
and, in talking, rest.
“To the sweet flirtations, the first
Queen of beauty,
whom God infused with (in clear language)
rhetorical wisdom,1
responds with these conceits
perfect offspring of Divine Grace,
as her sweet professions of love are studied by
nightingale musicians,
winged Philomels, whose songs salute
the first Diana, daughter of the dawn.”
Eve Replies
Beloved master mine,
so rightly loved,
that praising you would be
if not flattery, insult.
Sweet and beloved husband
of the soul that I consecrate
to your noble spirit
and your gallant heart.
Divine companion
who with sacred sovereignty
comes to honor the world
by holy decree.
Origin of my being,
since my repose consisted of
sleeping near your prudent heart,
and waking by your side.
Your voice and amorous words
I have chastely listened to,
in their sweet accents
my love has found repose.
Like from wood to wood
the fallow deer comes leaping,
so too your voice did go
to my heart reaching.
With love I am sick,
and from the high hill
of the Divine Grace
I inquire after you.
“Luminous deities
have you seen my beloved?”
“Who is your beloved” say
the sacred planets.
“My beloved,” I reply
“is among ten thousand distinguished,
blond as the sun itself
and white as the daybreak.
“His head is the gold
that Ophir shoots in rays
and his hair ringlets
with overtones of topaz.
“His two beautiful eyes
are a dove’s, and so much so
that they swim on milk
where they bathe themselves.
“He is the King of the whole world
and the sacred Paradise
Garden of Eden divine
serves him for a palace.”
But since the heavens,
whom God has commanded
that from this pure garden
its stars be nourished,
desired me to see you
(miracle most rare,
since you hold clear title
to the name of father and husband),
with intellectual agreement
the sacred commandment
on my soul I place
as an ultimate repose.
If this forbidden fruit
by sacred precept
is adorned by science,
portent of our soul,
is it not right, my husband
that we should apply our lips
to its fearsome nourishment
when we are without it?
If you trust me regarding
the sacredness of this command,
its keeping-place shall be the heart,
temple of enlightenment.
In my beloved
it must be guarded
for centuries upon centuries.
Witnesses are the stars,
the flowers and the springs
and of this sacred garden
the pure spirits,
supreme custodians
that guard its beauty
with winged motion. [ . . . ]
Translated by
David
Herman
.
Sifre ‘evronot—manuals for calculating the Jewish calendar, including leap years and holidays—were a popular genre of Ashkenazic illustrated manuscripts in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, although there is evidence for them from the sixteenth century. The image of the woman appears in a richly illustrated manuscript owned by Joseph ben Moses Heilprin, completed in 1572.
Notes
[Obscure wordplay about Eve coming from Adam’s rib. The usual meaning of cordura is “wisdom” or “good sense,” but its etymological meaning is “something related to or located near the heart,” an indirect reference to the rib cage.—Trans.]
Credits
Antonio Enríquez Gómez, “Diálogo de Adán y Eva (Dialogue of Adam and Eve),” in Antología Sefaradí, 1492–1700, ed. María del Carmen Artigas (Madrid: Editorial Verbum, 1997), 94–97.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.
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