See the nature of the winds

Unknown

12th Century

About This Entry

These lines are excerpted from a Hebrew poem, in rhymed couplets, found in the Cairo Geniza. Perhaps echoing—and expanding on—the sentiment of Ecclesiastes 3 (“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven”), this poem asks the reader to consider the wild variety in the natural world: the changeable winds, seasonal weather, and regional harvests and terrains. The last lines of the poem, not translated here, point to the fact that all living creatures, including humans, will eventually die.

See the nature of the winds, blowing from four corners,

divided at times, and given control.

Sometimes one is roused up, and its power becomes mighty,

and sometimes it is assuaged, and its power collapses.

See also the air, differing according to the seasons:

the fruit harvest, the early spring, the hot, and the cold.¹

When the heat has control, there is no cold;

and in the days of winter,² the sun is hiding.

And in the days of the fruit harvest, both are weak.

And all three are mingled together in the early spring.

Consider the clouds, how they come in their time,

and their rain, and times when they are born.

They come in their times, and fill up the world,

and when their time is up, they are gone, not present.

Some years are luscious, bedecked with blessings.

Some years are lean, bereft of goodness.

There are periods that make produce flourish and flower,

and periods that parch and wither the leaves.

Consider the land and see its divisions.

Let your eyes traverse all its expanses.

One place may be apportioned to be for a palace,

another designated for the filth of refuse.

A land may be crowned with lovely buildings,

another desolate, bleak and barren.

A land may have fields full of produce and delights,

another a ruin, home for ostriches and jackals.

A land may grow spices and perfumes,

another graves for putrid corpses.

A land may produce gold and pearls,

another brimstone and salt.

A land may produce drugs for healing,

another evil drugs.

A land may be full of springs, lifegiving water,

another thin, thirsty and dry.

A land may today be desirable to all,

and tomorrow turn to wasteland and scorn.

Lift your eyes to see the everlasting waters,

which have tides designated for them every day;

Sometimes their waters gush and fill brooks,

and sometimes their waters decrease, and take away from streams.

Translated by Gabriel Wasserman.

Notes

[This list of four seasons does not correspond exactly with the list common today. The word translated here as “fruit harvest,” Hebrew kayits, referred traditionally to the period around June and July; in modern Hebrew it is used for “summer.” What is translated here as “early spring,” Hebrew ḥoref, traditionally referred to the months of first flowers in February or March; in modern Hebrew it means “winter.” The other two terms, heat and cold, refer to the times of year with extreme temperatures.—Trans.]

[Hebrew setav, the cold season; modern Hebrew uses this word for “autumn.”—Trans.]

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