Come to me at dawn, love
About This Entry
This is one of a series of poems by Ibn Gabirol. In each, he uses imagery drawn from the Song of Songs to compose a lyrical love poem in which the beloved is not a mundane human lover, but God or the Messiah (“Jesse’s son”), and the desired reunion is that of divine redemption of the Jewish people. Although it is not entirely clear where in the liturgy this poem may have fit, it seems likely that it was used for devotion, whether in a synagogue setting or in private prayer.
Credits
Solomon Ibn Gabirol, “Come to me at dawn, love,” from Vulture in A Cage: Poems by Solomon Ibn Gabirol, trans. Raymond P. Scheindlin (Brooklyn, N.Y.: Archipelago Books, 2016), 319. Used by permission of the publisher.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 3: Encountering Christianity and Islam.