Selected poems of Solomon Ibn Gabirol / translated from the Hebrew by Peter Cole.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ibn Gabirol, active 11th century.

Contributor:

Cole, Peter, 1957-

Series:

Lockert library of poetry in translation

The Lockert library of poetry in translation

Standardized Title:

Poems. English. Selections

Language:

English

Hebrew

Subjects (All):

Ibn Gabirol, active 11th century--Translations into English.

Ibn Gabirol.

Ibn Gabirol, active 11th century.

Physical Description:

ix, 326 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, [2001]

Summary:

Poet, philosopher, and sensitive misanthrope, a spectacular fly in the ointment of the refined eleventh-century Andalusian-Jewish elite, Solomon Ibn Gabirol comes down to us as one of the most complicated intellectual figures in the history of post-biblical Hebrew literature. Unlike his worldly predecessor Shmuel HaNagid, the first important poet of the period. Ibn Gabirol was a reclusive, mystically inclined writer whose modern-sounding medieval poems range from sublime descriptions of the heavenly spheres to poisonous jabs at court life and its pretenders.

Peter Cole's selection includes poems from nearly all of Ibn Gabirol's secular and liturgical genres, as well as a complete translation of the poet's cosmological masterpiece, "Kingdom's Crown." Cole's inventive introduction places the poetry in historical context and charts its influence through the centuries. Extensive annotations accompany the poems. This companion volume to the translator's critically acclaimed Selected Poems of Shmuel HaNagid is the first comprehensive selection of Ibn Gabirol's verse to be published in English and brings to life an astonishing body of work by one of the greatest Jewish poets of all time.

Contents:

Solomon Ibn Gabirol: An Andalusian Alphabet 3

From the Diwan of Solomon Ibn Gabirol

Truth Seekers Turn 41

Personal Poems and Poems of Court

I'm Prince to the Poem 45

My Words Are Driven 46

Forget About "If" and "Maybe" 47

Prologue to the Book of Grammar 49

My Condition Worsened 51

All My Desire 52

The Apple: I 53

The Rose 54

See the Sun 55

They Asked Me As Though They Were Mystified 56

On Leaving Saragossa 57

The Moon Was Cut 61

My Heart Thinks As the Sun Comes Up 62

The Palace Garden 63

Winter with Its Ink 66

The Garden 67

The Field 68

The Bee 69

Isn't the Sky 70

The Lily 71

Now the Thrushes 72

The Apple: II 73

The Lightning 74

The Lip of the Cup 75

I'd Give Up My Soul Itself 76

Tell the Boy 77

Be Smart with Your Love 78

All in Red 79

Shards 80

The Apple: III 81

You've Stolen My Words 82

The Altar of Song 83

Tell the Prince 84

What's Troubling You, My Soul 85

The Pen 88

What's With You 89

God-Fearing Men 90

Your Soul Strains and You Sigh 91

Don't Look Back 94

If This Life's Joy 95

When You Find Yourself Angry 96

I Am the Man 97

And Don't Be Astonished 99

The Tree 100

If You'd Live Among Men 104

Why Are You Frightened 105

A Kite 106

And Heart's Hollow 107

I Love You 108

Poems of Devotion

Before My Being 111

Three Things 112

I Look for You 113

Forget Your Grief 114

The Hour of Song 117

Two Things Meet in Me 118

Small in My Awe 119

Open the Gate 120

My Thoughts Asked Me 121

Angels Amassing 122

All the Creatures of Earth and Heaven 124

He Dwells Forever 126

And So It Came to Nothing 129

Haven't I Hidden Your Name 130

Lord Who Listens 131

I've Made You My Refuge 132

Lips for Bullocks 133

I Take Great Pleasure 134

Send Your Spirit 135

You Lie in My Palace on Couches of Gold 136

Kingdom's Crown 137.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 317-326).

ISBN:

0691070318

0691070326

OCLC:

44413774