Songs of Labor and Other Poems Part 10

"Mighty Lord, whose sovereign pleasure Made all worlds and men of dust, I, Thy humble handmaid, measure, G.o.d, the dwellings of the just.

"Speechless here the ground they c.u.mber, Where the pious, gracious G.o.d, Where Thy heart's beloved slumber Underneath the quiet sod.

"They who sing in jubilation, Lord, before Thy holy seat, Each one from his habitation, Through the dream for ever sweet.

"From the yarn with which I measure, Pessyeh-Tsvaitel, filled with awe, Wicks will make, to search the treasure, Nightly, of Thy holy Law.

Praying still, by faith sustained: 'Thou with whom the holy dwell, Scorn not Jacob's prayer unfeigned, Mark the tears of Israel!'"

The First Bath of Ablution

The wind is keen, the frost is dread, Toward the icy water, By aunt and mother forth is led The fisher's lovely daughter.

"Dive in, dive in, my child, with haste!

There's naught whereon to ponder, The time, dear heart, we must not waste: The sun has set out yonder.

"G.o.d's mercy, child, is great and sure: Fear not but He will show it!

Leap in,--leap out! and you are pure,-- 'Tis over ere you know it!"

The frost and cold with cruel knife The tender form a.s.sail.

Ah, would you be a Jewish wife, You must not weep and quail!

And in--and out,--she leaps. Once more!

Poor girl, it has not served you.

No purer are you than before: A Gentile has observed you!

And into th' icy flood again, In terror wild she leaps!

The white limbs shudder... all in vain!

The Christian still he peeps.

The frost and cold, they burn and bite, The women rub their fingers, The lovely child grows white and white, As on the bank she lingers.

"The Law, my child, we must fulfill, The scoundrel see depart!

Yet once! 'tis but a moment's chill, 'Tis but a trifling smart!"

The white-faced child the Law has kept, The covenant unstained, For in the waters deep she leapt, And there below remained.

Atonement Evening Prayer

Atonement Day--evening pray'r--sadness profound.

The soul-lights, so clear once, are dying around.

The reader is spent, and he barely can speak; The people are faint, e'en the ba.s.so is weak.

The choristers pine for the hour of repose.

Just one--two chants more, and the pray'r book we close!

And now ev'ry Jew's supplication is ended, And Nilah* approaching, and twilight descended.

The blast of the New Year is blown on the horn, All go; by the Ark I am standing forlorn, And thinking: "How shall it be with us anon, When closed is the temple, and ev'ryone gone!"

[* Ne'ilah, (Hebrew) Conclusion, concluding prayer.]

Exit Holiday

Farewell to the feast-day! the pray'r book is stained With tears; of the booth scarce a trace has remained; The lime branch is withered, the osiers are dying, And pale as a corpse the fair palm-frond is lying; The boughs of grey willow are trodden and broken-- Friend, these are your hopes and your longings unspoken!

Lo, there lie your dreamings all dimm'd and rejected, And there lie the joys were so surely expected!

And there is the happiness blighted and perished, And all that aforetime your soul knew and cherished, The loved and the longed for, the striven for vainly-- Your whole life before you lies pictured how plainly!

The branches are sapless, the leaves will decay, An end is upon us, and whence, who shall say?

The broom of the beadle outside now has hustled The lime and the palm that so pleasantly rustled.

There blew a cold gust, from our sight all is banished-- The shaft from a cross-bow less swiftly had vanished!