Winter kept its vow

Mid-11th Century

About This Entry

Ibn Gabirol ruminates on the change of seasons in this Hebrew poem. His description animates the landscape—the weather, the flowers, and the birds—all in evocative, human terms.

Winter kept its vow,

fulfilled its promise to the lily of the valley.

A summer day had waited all through winter.

Then the lightning came, proclaiming

that the earth had given painless birth

and that her babes were nursing at the breasts of clouds.

Look how the earth is laughing, look how soft

her cheeks, just yesterday so hard.

The beds are draped in coats woven of threads

of white and red, interwoven by the clouds of heaven.

To the eye, they look like bits of gold;

their backs resemble jaspers.

The pigeon, crane, and swallow rise and boast

that they are better than the doves of the canals.

When they cock their heads and start to hop,

you almost think their feet are caught in chains,

and when the splendid sunlight shines on them,

they seem to put on colored neck-rings.

Translated by Raymond P. Scheindlin.

Fragment of a worn page depicting two birds facing each other among branches and fruits, with a decorated border.

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Credits

Solomon Ibn Gabirol, “Winter kept its vow,” from Vulture in a Cage: Poems by Solomon Ibn Gabirol, trans. Raymond P. Scheindlin (Brooklyn, N.Y.: Archipelago Books, 2016), 215. Used with permission of the publisher.

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