breath-in-me

I went looking for Passover poems and got stuck on this one, which is not actually a Passover poem. It feels applicable, though—Passover, like all Jewish holidays, is always at least a little about finding faith and hope (and community, and God) in dark places. This poem also gave me many unexpected feelings about poetry in Muslim Spain, vis a vis The Lions of Al-Rassan, so it's a little bit for mistresscurvy.

I look for you early,
my rock and my refuge,
         offering you worship
    morning and night;
before your vastness
I come confused
         and afraid, for you see
    the thoughts of my heart.

What could the heart
and tongue compose,
         or spirit's strength
    within me to suit you?
But song soothes you
and so I'll give praise
          to your being as long
    as your breath-in-me moves.

—Solomon Ibn Gabirol (c. 1022 to 1058-70), "I Look for You," translated by Peter Cole, from The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain 950-1492 (Princeton University Press, 2007). According to the Poetry Foundation bio, Solomon Ibn Gabriel (Shelomoh ben Yehudah Ibn Gabirol in Hebrew and Abu Ayyub Sulaiman ibn Yahya Ibn Jubayrol in Arabic) was a poet and philosopher who lived in Spain in the middle of the 11th century, and was part of the Jewish intellectual culture in Saragossa. Says the bio: "His Hebrew poetry draws from Arabic verse traditions, borrowing metrics, rhyme schemes, and imagery." Gosh.