YEARNING FOR HEBRON

[from Zion! Wilt Thou Not Ask? by Yehudah haLevi]

O who will make me wings, that I may fly afar,
And lay the ruins of my cleft heart among thy broken cliffs!

I would fall, with my face upon thine earth and take
delight
In thy stones [O Zion] and be tender to thy dust.

Yea, more, when standing by my father's tombs
I would marvel in Hebron over the chosen of thy graves.

I would pass into thy forest and thy fruitful field and stand
Within thy Gilead, and wonder at thy mount beyond--

[from Selected Poems of Jehudah Halevi, translation by Nina
Salaman, Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1924]