The first major poet of the Hebrew literary renaissance of Moslem Spain, Shmuel Ben Yosef Ha-Levi Ha Nagid (993-1056 c.e.) was also the Prime Minister of the Muslim state of Granada, battlefield commander of the non-Jewish Granadan army, and one of the leading religious figures in a medieval Jewish world that stretched from Andalusia to Baghdad. Peter Cole’s groundbreaking versions of Ha Nagid’s poems capture the poet’s combination of secular and religious passion, as well as his inspired linking of Hebrew and Arabic poetic practice. This annotated Selected Poems is the most comprehensive collection of Ha Nagid’s work published to date in English.
‘The Multiple Troubles of Man’
The multiple troubles of man,
my brother, like slander and pain,
amaze you? Consider the heart
which holds them all
in strangeness, and doesn’t break.
‘I’d Suck Bitter Poison from the Viper’s Mouth’
I’d suck bitter poison from the viper’s mouth
and live by the basilisk’s hole forever,
rather than suffer through evenings with boors,
fighting for crumbs from their table.
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Peter Cole is the author of
Rift, a collection of poems.
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