Centre for Romanian Studies

Poetry in Translation (CCCLXIII), Solomon ibn GABIROL aka AVICEBRON (ca 1021 – ca 1058), SPAIN/JEWISH ANDALUS:
“Ask of Me”, “Cere-mi”

Ask of Me
Shlomo (Solomon) ibn GABIROL
Aka AVICEBRON
(b.ca 1021 Malaga – d. ca 1058, Valencia)

Ask of me, beautiful mouth,
What dost thou ask of Me?
For thy suppliant cry
Hath ascended on high
Inclining My ear to thy plea.

‘First with the lion we met,
Next came the leopard’s leap,
We were fain to take flight
From our garden’s delight
And into a hiding-place creep.

‘Hardly these creatures had passed,
Sated with Judah’s spoil,
Than the wild ass we feared
Out of midnight appeared
To trample and dwell on our soil.

Ishmael’s offspring command
Back to his Arab land,
As his mother of old
To her mistress was told
To return and submit to her hand.

English version by Israel Zangwill

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AVICEBRON

Cere-mi
Shlomo (Solomon) ibn GABIROL
Aka AVICEBRON
(n.ca 1021 Malaga, Andaluzia Arabă – d. ca 1058, Valencia, Spania)

Cere-mi, tu, gură de zână,
Ce vrei să-mi ceri cu-aşa trudă?
Căci strigătul tău ce imploră,
A pătruns in ceruri de rouă
Făcându-mi urechea s-audă.

Mai întâi leu-a ieşit în cale,
Leopardu-a sărit la noi,
Făcându-ne ca să fugim,
Din ceruri goniţi din senin
Spre Pământ fiind mânaţi amândoi.

Dar abea au plecat, în puhoi, aste fiare,
Fiind tihnite de-ofranda de Iudă,
Când asinul sălbatic, şi cu ochiul hapsân,
A sosit peste noapte, să se facă stăpân,
Să ne calce ogorul arat cu-aşa trudă.

Şi precum Ismail l-a mânat
Să se-ntoarcă la câmpul arat,
Tot aşa muma lui, prea-bătrână,
Iubitei lui i-a strigat
Să se-ncline voinţei ei de stăpână.

Rendered in Romanian by Constantin ROMAN, London,
© 2015 Copyright Constantin ROMAN

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SHORT BIO: Solomon ben Yehuda ibn Gabirol AVICEBRON was an 11th-century Andalusian poet and Jewish philosopher with a Neo-Platonic influence. He published over a hundred poems, as well as works of biblical exegesis, philosophy, ethics and satire.
Gabirol wrote both sacred and secular poems, in Hebrew, and was recognized even by his critics, as the greatest poet of his age. His secular poems express disillusionment with social mores and worldliness, but are written with a sophistication and artistry that reveals him to have been socially influenced by his worldly Arabic contemporaries.