The earth, like a girl-child

Judah ha-Levi wrote this virtuosic Hebrew poem in praise of a friend named Isaac ben al-Yatom. In the first part of a panegyric ode (qaṣīda), it was conventional for the poet to develop a seemingly unrelated theme and only afterward to craft a clever transition to the subject of the poem. Here, ha-Levi spends some time contemplating nature, likening the earth to a beautiful woman, and then he turns to the topic of drinking wine (“the daughter of the vine”) in a lovely orchard. Finally, he works his way around to his friend, Isaac, cleverly punning on the name’s association in Hebrew with the word for laughter. The rest of the poem consists of a series of praises for his friend.