HEINRICH HEINE - Repositories

Hi
^'mrolmttion*
"Hail, beloved halls of my royal
Father! Ye tents of Jacob, I kiss
with my lips your holy door-posts I"
Still more he shows us this serious
side in his beautiful.poem on Jehuda
ben Halevy, a poet belonging to "the
great golden age of the Arabian, Old-
Spanish, Jewish school of poets," a
contemporary of the troubadours: —
" He, too, — the hero whom we sing,
— Jehuda ben Halevy, too, had his
lady-love; but she was of a special
sort.
"She was no Laura, whose eyes,
mortal stars, in the cathedral on Good
Friday kindled that world-renowned
flame.
" She was no chatelaine, who in the
blooming glory of her youth presided
at tourneys, and awarded the victor's
crown.
"No casuistress in the Gay Science
was she, no lady doctrinaire, who delivered
her oracles in the judgment-chamber
of a Court of Love.
" She, whom the Rabbi loved, was a
woe-begone poor darling, a mourning
picture of desolation . . and her name
was Jerusalem."
Jehuda ben Halevy, like the Crusaders,
makes his pilgrimage to Jerusalem
; and there, amid the ruins, sings a
song of Sion which has become famous
among his people : —
"That lay of pearled tears is the
wide-famed Lament, which is sung in