The Garden

The Garden

Its beads of dew are frozen

G-d sends his word melt them

They trickle down the grapevine’s stem

And the grape’s wine seeps into my blood.

The flower beds blossom, and open before us

Clasps of their whitening buds

Send a fragrance up to our faces

As we wander out to the myrtles.

As you go, each flower lends you a petal -

A wing, in theory, so you won’t crush it;

And the sun’s face glows like a bride

Whose jewels shine in her glow.

Through the star’s circuit around earth, daily, the sun glides, 

Although no one quests for her love -

Thus, we tend to think of the sun as a king’s chariot

Drawn by galloping horses;

As it passes over the garden you notice

The flower beds now coated in silver light,

And then when the day ends, the sun lines

The beds’ borders with a shimmering gold.

Original Text:

Its beads of dew are frozen

Hr sends his word melt them;

They trickle down the grapevine’s stem

and its wine seeps into my blood.

The beds blossom, and open before us

Clasps of their whitening buds

Send a fragrance up to our faces

As we wander out to the myrtles.

As you go, each flower lends you a petal -

A wing so you won’t crush it;

And the sun’s face glows like a bride

Whose jewels shine in her glow.

Through its circuit, daily, the sun glides, 

Though no one at all pursues her -

And so we think it a king’s chariot

Drawn by galloping horses.

As it passes over the garden you notice

The beds now coated in silver light,

And then when the day declines, it lines

Their borders with a shimmering gold.

- Jeremy Shapiro

Who am I?

JH About Myself

I find myself in the midst of two worlds.  Those in the Arab world call me Abu Ayyub Sulaiman Ibn Yahya Ibn Jabirul, but I present to you my Hebrew name, Shelomo Ibn Gabirol.  To say that I lived a life of glamour would be a lie.  I've been a nomad for most of my life at the hand of anti-semitism.  A mix-up in documents has made my birth year either 1021 or 1022.  I, an infant, fled the beautiful Cordoba along with my family right before the city's collapse under the Umayyad caliphate, relocating north to Saragossa.  It wasn't long after until my father died.   Still, Saragossa put me in prime position to witness the happenings of both the Muslim and Jewish communitys.  Now fatherless, a man named Yequti'el Ibn Hasan al-Mutawakkil Ibn Qabrun looked after me and watched me grow into the poet I am known to be today.  By 19, I had become one of the most prominent poets of my time.  Despite this success, my patron, or second father, Yequti'el was executed.  Once again, anti-semitism reared its head, and I packed for Granada around 1045.  There, I worked in Samuel HaNagid's court.  In, Granada, I now stood in the presence of another one of the greatest scholars of my time, but my relationship with HaNagid deteriorated.  I have been taken over by illness throughout my time on Earth..  I'm in pain all the time both mentally and physically.  You see, I am not well liked.  I feel as if I’m isolated despite the fact that many respect my work.  All of this hardship has made me a bitter man.

Focusing on my work, some critics have exclaimed that my poem, Kingdom’s Crown, will be looked upon in the future as on of the greatest poems in all Hebrew literature.  I said before that I live between two worlds.  Other poems I authored have nothing to do with Judaism at all, appealing to a wider audience interested in my philosophy on life and the soul.  Poems like I’d Give Up My Should Itself and The Garden shed some light on my secular views.

- Jeremy Shapiro