Creator Bio
Joseph Ibn Sahl
d. 1123
Joseph ben Jacob Ibn Sahl was a prominent Andalusi poet and halakhist. A student of Isaac Ibn Ghiyath (1038–1089), Ibn Sahl served as the head of the Jewish community of Córdoba, in al-Andalus (Muslim Spain) after the death of Isaac al-Fāsī (Rif). Very few of his talmudic and poetic writings survive, but his extant texts include several laments and panegyrics.
Content by Joseph Ibn Sahl
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And the fleas charge
And the fleas charge like war-horses; they swoop down like birds to devour my skin. They caper around me like he-goats, and rouse me out of my sleep. I have become weary of killing both young and old…
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And there are men who coveted you
To one of the great men of the generation.
And there are men who coveted you, and they are in the depths, and you are far above,
And how can a camel be noble as an eagle, and a son of a donkey like…