’Ana habet u-r’eh (Please, Look and See!)

ca. 6th Century

Please, look and see!

The waters have reached our nostrils,

we have been sorely and angrily rebuked,

we have been greatly oppressed,

we have been lowered to the dust of the earth,

through our sins we have become as nothing,

our enemies have swarmed and devoured us,

shame has shattered our loins,

good has fled from us,

salvation has gone afar and is lost:

How will we bear and endure

the quantity of troubles that encircle us?

We have been blackened more than the blackest pot,

we are like a [shattered] clay vessel,

we have been finished off from generation to generation.

How long will You behold and keep silent?

O Worker of Salvation, save!

O Rock of Ages, rescue!

Holy and Awesome One, deliver us!

Merciful One, have compassion for us!

Shaddai, Dweller on high,

remember on our behalf the covenant with the Settler [Abraham],

and forgive us for the merit of the Bound One [Isaac],

and justify us for the righteousness of the Pure One [Jacob].

Translated by Richard S. Sarason.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.

’Ashamnu mi-kol ‘am (More Guilty Are We Than All Other Peoples)