My heart’s desire

This example of a muwashshaḥ (a strophic “girdle” poem, formatted here in prose paragraphs) is one of the racier poems written by a medieval Hebrew poet; unlike some of their Muslim counterparts, Jewish poets tended to avoid explicit eroticism. Ibn Ezra here explores the tension between the pleasures of this world—drinking wine and enjoying the sight (and the love) of the young male wine server (sākī), conventionally called a “hart” or “fawn”—and the moral order that condemns these activities.