"He, too,—the hero whom we sing,—Jehuda ben Halevy, too, had his lady-love; but she was of a special sort.
"She was no Laura,[177] whose eyes, mortal stars, in the cathedral on
Good Friday kindled that world-renowned flame.
"She was no chatelaine, who in the blooming glory of her youth presided at tourneys, and awarded the victor's crown.
"No casuistess in the Gay Science was she, no lady doctrinaire, who delivered her oracles in the judgment-chamber of a Court of Love.[178]
"She, whom the Rabbi loved, was a woe-begone poor darling, a mourning picture of desolation … and her name was Jerusalem."
Jehuda ben Halevy, like the Crusaders, makes his pilgrimage to Jerusalem; and there, amid the ruins, sings a song of Sion which has become famous among his people:—
"That lay of pearled tears is the wide-famed Lament, which is sung in all the scattered tents of Jacob throughout the world.
"On the ninth day of the month which is called Ab, on the anniversary of
Jerusalem's destruction by Titus Vespasianus.
"Yes, that is the song of Sion, which Jehuda ben Halevy sang with his dying breath amid the holy ruins of Jerusalem.
"Barefoot, and in penitential weeds, he sat there upon the fragment of a fallen column; down to his breast fell,