If only my whole head could be water

Qalonymos ben Judah

Early 12th Century

Photo of a stone capital featuring a relief of an eagle.

Lamentation on the massacres of Rhineland Jewish communities

If only my whole head could be water, and my eyes a flowing fountain,

I would bewail, all my days and nights,

the corpses of my little ones, my babes, and the elders of my community.

Now you respond: “Alas! Alack! Woe!”

and cry a great, profuse cry,

for the House of Israel and the Lord’s people, who have fallen by the sword!

My eye tears greatly, and I go to the field of the weepers,

and I bring bitter, bewildered people to cry with me,

for the beautiful girls and the tender boys,

bound up in their books and pulled to the slaughter.

Their bodies were more ruddy than rubies, sapphires, and emeralds,

now trodden like mud in the street and cast aside.

“Stay away! Impure!” they called out, so that people would not come near—

for the House of Israel and the Lord’s people, who have fallen by the sword!

And my eye descends with tears, and I wail and moan,

and I call for crying, and wearing sackcloth, and reciting eulogies.

That which is more precious than gold, more beloved than fine gold,

invaluable inside, more valuable than all precious vessels—

I saw it torn up, bereft and desolate:

the Torah! Scripture, the Mishnah, and Aggadic Lore! [ . . . ]

And my eyes flow with tears, pouring forth water,

and I bitterly lament those killed in Speyer.

It happened in the second month [Iyar], on the eighth day, on the Day of Rest.

Beloved young men and beautiful elders were killed.

They assembled together, and gave up their lives with awe

for the Unique Divine Name, whom they mightily declared to be One.

Mighty heroes, hastily fulfilling His words,

and my priests and young men expired—ten in all.

I compose wails in my bitter anguish and sadness,

to remember, today, the murders in the holy congregations,

the community of Worms, pure and select,

great rabbis, so pure and clean.

Twice they sanctified the Divine Name, in awe:

on the twenty-third of the month of Ziv [Iyar],¹ in purity,

and on the first of the third month [Sivan], while reciting Hallel in song.

They gave up their lives, bound up in love. [ . . . ]

They have trampled down all my great ones, my very umbilical cord.

My wound is festering, with no balm or bandage.

There is no one to heal it or wrap it.

Therefore, I say: Leave me alone! Let me bitterly cry,

with the tears of my cries burning my cheeks

for the House of Israel and the Lord’s people, who have fallen by the sword!

Translated by Gabriel Wasserman.

Notes

[“Ziv” is a biblical name (1 Kings 6:1) for the month postbiblically known as “Iyar.”—Trans.]

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

If only my whole head could be water

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If only my whole head could be water

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