I'll sing a song of a battle array

First Half of the 12th Century

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This Hebrew poem, about a game of chess, paints a detailed picture of the rules of the game and the moves permitted to each of the black and red pieces; with blow-by-blow narration, Ibn Ezra vividly describes the plays, moves, and fighting sequences as the soldiers face off on the chessboard.

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I’ll sing a song of a battle array, crowned long ago, from ancient times.

It was arranged by men of wisdom and understanding; they established it on eight rows.

And each and every row is engraved, upon the board, into eight divisions,

With each division being a square, all adjacent to one another, with the camps standing together.

Kings stand with their camps, to fight; and there is a space between the two camps.

Their faces are all directed to fight; and they are constantly moving and stopping.

Their battle involves no drawing of swords; rather, their battle is a work of the mind.

They are distinguished by signs, marks, inscribed and engraved upon their bodies.

And you see them in their commotion, you will think that they are Edomites [red men] and Cushites [black men].The Cushites first extend their hands to battle, and the Edomites go forth after them.

The footsoldiers [pawns] go first, straight on the path to war.

The footsoldier moves straight forward, but he turns aside to capture his enemy.

He does not turn aside when he is walking, nor does he turn his feet backward.

And if he wishes, he may jump, on his first move, three spaces on the path, in any direction.

If he wanders far from his homeand reaches the eighth row,

he may return in any direction, like a ferz [vizier];¹ his battle will be considered like the vizier’s.

The vizier may direct his steps, his travels, in all four directions.

The elephant [bishop] goes forth and enters battle; he stands on the side, as if in ambush.

His walk is like that of the ferz, except that he has the advantage of going to the third place.² And the horse is very light-footed in battle; he walks alone a crooked path.

His ways are crooked, not straight, and his limits are within three squares.

And the rook travels a straight path, along the entire length and width of the field.

He does not seek any crooked ways; his journey has no bends or crooks.

The king walks on all sides, in all directions, helping his servants.

He is careful when he sits and when he goes to fight and where he rests.If his enemy approaches him in hostility, he will rebuke him, to flee from his province.

And if the rook should push him into dread, and chase him from chamber to chamber,

There are times when he will flee from him, and other times when his men will give him cover.

And they all kill each other, and one exterminates the other with great rage.

The two kings’ mighty men lie as corpses, though no blood has been shed.

Sometimes the Cushites prevail, and the Edomites flee from them.

And other times Edom prevails, and the Cushites, with their king, are weakened.

And the king is trapped in their pit, with no mercy, he is caught in their net.

And there is no refuge, nowhere to escape and be spared, nowhere to flee to a safe refuge city.

He is judged and removed by the hand of the foe; there is none to rescue, so he falls to his death.

His army would all die for him and place their lives as ransom for his.

So their glory is over, and they are no more, when they see that their master has fallen.

Then they go to fight again [in a new game]; the slaughtered men rise again to life!

Translated by Gabriel Wasserman.

Notes

[Hebrew paraz. This piece is the medieval equivalent of the queen, though it has far less mobility: it moves diagonally, one square at a time. (The term ferz appears as fers in Chaucer’s English.)—Trans.]

[According to the chess rules of the time, the elephant moved diagonally, like the ferz, but two squares at a time (“to the third place,” the third square), rather than the one square of the ferz.—Trans.]