Sacred Texts  Judaism  Index  Previous  Next 

Selected Religious Poems of Solomon ibn Gabirol, tr. by Israel Zangwill, [1923], at sacred-texts.com


XI.

Who can declare Thy greatness?
For Thou hast encompassed the sphere of fire
with the sphere of the firmament,
Wherein is the Moon,
Which by the splendour of the Sun raceth up, panting and shining,
And in nine and twenty days fulfilleth her revolving
And then remounteth her bounded circuit.
Of her secrets some lie unveiled and some are unsearchable,
And her body is to the body of the earth
As one part is to thirty-nine parts,
And from month to month she stirreth up the world and its chances,
And its good and evil happenings,
According to the will of her Creator,
"To make known to the sons of men His mighty deeds."


Next: XII.