Epigrams

Late 12th Century

About This Entry

These ten rhymed couplets, found in a thirteenth-century Ashkenazic manuscript, are based on homonyms in Hebrew. These are indicated in the text with italics and explicated in the notes by the translator. The carefully crafted lines all express variations on an old man’s fear of death, as he mourns his impending fate, worries for his children, and fears divine punishment for his youthful sins.

I have come to the end of my life, with my clothes white,

to the time when the hairs of my head are white.

While I still can speak, I give instruction for the sons,

to acquire understanding, and to acquire husbands for the daughters.¹

In the days of my youth, my understanding was not accumulated,²

so I could not distinguish between holy and profane.

Therefore, from the worm I fear,

the weight of stone, the burden of sand.

Joy—is that something my heart can learn?³

It is not experienced. How can it rejoice,

When my enemy my grave is going to measure,

and the stone over me he will roll.

When fighting words within me are struggling,⁴

from the staff of understanding I take moral advice.

For my bones will be piles of desolation,

tomorrow, and from the city I will be removed.

Do I have any mouth to speak, and to rule over princes?⁵

tomorrow I will die, and my fate will be left to jackals,

And worms and maggots will get their portion, my flesh,

as food; and my friends will follow the custom to express lament.

To me, O son, come here, approach.⁶

Listen to your father, who gives instruction, at his [life’s] end.

When time comes for the fated battle,

reject possessions; keep only uprightness.

Sweet times have found me, but then to vinegar⁷

they have turned, when coming to afflict.

How can they steal my poetry, and rob

my heart’s joy, when I begin to sing.

See the men who to crimson are accustomed.⁸

When they die, there is mourning for them in hearts.

All the more so, for me, who have kept reliability,

so I have been, for many, as the apple of the eye.

A man’s heart is foolish when it performs abominations,⁹

for at the end, he will be proverbial.

Woe to the man that rules over the earth,

for they will rule over him—all those that he ruled.

My days have come to an end, and trembling grabs¹⁰

my heart, regarding my corpse, which will be exiled

Into the mud of the ground. That which I’d like to see

is: What will be my end? But none reveals.

Translated by Gabriel Wasserman.

Notes

[The word levanim can mean “white” (masc. plur.), or “for the sons.” The word levanot can mean “white” (fem. plur.), or “for the daughters.”—Trans.]

[The word agur can mean either “accumulated” or “I fear.” The word ḥol can mean either “profane” or “sand.” Berekhiah is concerned that because of the foolish sins of his youth, he is unprepared for the grave, the place of worms and soil (or sand).—Trans.]

[The word lamod can mean either “learn” or “to measure.” The word yagel can mean either “rejoice” or “roll.” The “enemy” in the third line is apparently a reference to fate.—Trans.]

[The word nitsim can mean either “striving, struggling” or “desolate, desolation.” The word musar can mean either “moral advice” or “removed.” Berekhiah says that when good and bad impulses strive inside him, he takes to heart that he will one day be dead.—Trans.]

[The word besarim can mean either “over princes” or “flesh.” The word letanot can mean either “to jackals” or “to express lament.”—Trans.]

[The word kerav means both “approach” and “battle.” The word tom means both “end” and “uprightness.” Berekhiah gives advice for the end of life, one’s last battle to stay alive.—Trans.]

[The word ḥomets means both “vinegar” and “rob.” The word le-‘anot means “to afflict,” and the word la-anot, which sounds very similar, means “to sing.”—Trans.]

[The word emunim can mean “accustomed, raised [to something]” or “reliability, faithfulness.” The word levavot can mean “hearts” or “for/as the apple of the eye.” Berekhiah is saying that when wealthy aristocrats die, people mourn them; and they should mourn me even more, because I have been loyal to people, and they actually care about me.—Trans.]

[The word tevel can mean “abominations” or “the earth.” The word mashal can mean “proverb, proverbial” (here: the sinner will suffer such misfortune that it will be a proverb: “May you suffer as much as that man), or “ruled.”—Trans.]

.[The word aḥaz can mean “grabs” or “I’ll see, I’d like to see.” The word goleh can mean “be exiled” or “reveals.”—Trans.]

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 3: Encountering Christianity and Islam.