The day my heart was troubled doubly
The day my heart was troubled doubly,
By your love, O crown unto my head,
Delight and joy were mine beside the sheepfolds,
When your beauteous traits were joined to me.
Lovely are your dancing steps, you lovely girl,
Delightful as the double dancing camp!
Full grown you are, and come into full beauty,
You feel as if your powers will last forever!
Cupid seized me by the neck and crushed me;
A boy blindfolded sallied forth with weapons,
Set his arrows by his side and shook me.
Effortlessly, he spread that net of his;
He set a hidden trap for me and caught me,
For in me now the flame of Eros burns.
Translated by Raymond P. Scheindlin.
Credits
Solomon de Oliveyra, “The day my heart was troubled doubly” (Sonnet, Amsterdam, 17th Century). Published in: Dvora Bregman, Tseror zehuvim: Sonetim ʻIvriyim mi-tekufat ha-Renesans veha-Barok (Bundle of Gold: Hebrew Sonnets from the Renaissance and the Baroque)(Jerusalem: Ben Zvi Institute, 1997), p. 418, (poem 339).
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.
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Related Guide
Early Modern Literature and the Arts
1500–1750
Jewish literary creativity flourished in the early modern period, dominated by Hebrew poetry that blended religious themes with Renaissance forms.
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