It is better that thy daughter should go down to the grave as a maiden than that she should beseech a man.
Buy thee a dwelling among the upright; depart from the habitation of the covetous and envious.
XIII. SAMUEL HA-NAGID
[Born at Cordova 993, and died at Granada 1055. He was famous as a poet, Halakist, and philologist, and was the author of a treatise on the methodology of the Talmud. Some medieval Jewish critics considered him the greatest Hebrew poet. This view, however, cannot be maintained, as he was certainly surpassed by Ibn Gebirol and Judah ha-Levi. He was for some time vizier at the court of King Habus. His poems, perhaps more than those of any other poet of that epoch, resemble the Arabic poems very closely.]
1. On Leaving Cordova[[83]]
The soul is deprived of that which it desires, and that which it asks is withheld from it. Although the body is plump, and fed, and fat, the glorious soul is not yet satisfied. A humble man walks on the earth, and yet his thoughts reach unto the skies. Of what avail is it to man to have his body’s pleasures, while his soul is distressed? Some friends there are who harm and profit not; they have big bodies, but their minds are small. They think that to increase my riches I depart from my dwelling-place and roam about—though the locks of my head are dishevelled and mine eye is painted with night’s stibium. My friends know not the secrets of my heart; indeed my friends spoke not knowingly. Their soul knows nought, nor does it understand; it is like the soul of a cloven-footed beast.
Shall he refrain himself, whose soul is like a moon, and, like the moon, strives to soar high? And shall he rest until he girds his loins with her wings, as one girds on a cloth, and till his deeds are heard throughout the world, and like the ocean is his fame increased?
I swear by God and by His worshippers (assuredly, my like shall keep his oath) that I will ascend the rocks on foot, and go down to the deepest pit; The borders of the desert will I join, and cross the ocean in a boat with sails; I shall roam about until I soar and rise to a height that forever shall be known. With terrors shall I then inspire my foes, but my friends shall find salvation in me. The ears of freemen shall I bore through[[84]] as slaves’, and mine ear, too, shall be bored through by my friends.
I have a soul that sustains my friends, but from my adversaries it is withheld. In it there is for thee a garden filled with friendship, planted by the brook of love; it is that friendship which is kept from early youth, like a signet fixed in a ring; it is engraved like the green gravings in a window cut out in the door of a palace.
May God be with thee as thou lovest, and may thy soul, which He loves, be redeemed from the hand of foes. May the God of deliverance send thee salvation, till there be no sun and moon!