Selected Poems

by Solomon ibn Gabirol, Peter Cole (Translator)

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 Judaism. Unlike his worldly predecessor Shmuel HaNagid, the first important poet of the period, Ibn Gabirol was a reclusive, mystically inclined figure whose modern-sounding medieval poems range from sublime descriptions of the heavenly spheres to poisonous jabs at court life and its pretenders. His verse, which demonstrates complete mastery of the classicizing avant-garde poetics of the day, grafted an Arabic aesthetic onto a biblical vocabulary and Jewish setting, taking Hebrew poetry to a level of metaphysical sophistication and devotional power it has not achieved since.


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

Genres: Poetry, Religion, Judaism

256 pages, Paperback

First published December 15, 2000

About the author

Solomon ibn Gabirol was an 11th-century Andalusian poet and Jewish philosopher with a Neo-Platonic bent. He published over a hundred poems, as well as works of biblical exegesis, philosophy, ethics, and satire. One source credits Ibn Gabirol with creating a golem, possibly female, for household chores.

In the 19th century it was discovered that medieval translators had Latinised Gabirol's name to Avicebron and had translated his work on Jewish Neo-Platonic philosophy into a Latin form that had in the intervening centuries been highly regarded as a work of Islamic or Christian scholarship. As such, Ibn Gabirol is well known in the history of philosophy for the doctrine that all things, including soul and intellect, are composed of matter and form (“Universal Hylomorphism”), and for his emphasis on Divine Will.

Reviews

[Bee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do enjoy ibn Gabriol's poetry, and this book has quite a lot that aren't in my other anthology. However, I prefer the translation work of Scheindlin from Vulture in a Cage, I find Scheindlin's translations with brighter imagery. It's not like I can read the original Hebrew, though, so I'm not coming from somewhere that can compare the English to the original.

[Esther Ben-Koheleth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most powerful and heart-touching Jewish poems ever exist, in my opinion. The connection with the words of Ibn Gvirol’s poetry causes so many emotions and sad feelings… And I think that is ok. It serves a purpose. It emulates a lot of what we can feel in life. What we do feel too deeply sometimes. There’s also a lot of strength in it.

Check this out:

‘My pain’s too much, my wounds are deadly.
My strength is gone, my vigor all depleted.
Nowhere to flee, no refuge for my soul,
no place where I might find rest.
Three things have come together to consume the little flesh and tortured spirit left to me:
Great sin, great pain, and loneliness-
Could anyone withstand all three?
Am I an ocean or dragon, Lord?
Are my bones bronze or iron,
that suffering is all around me always,
my patrimony, as it were,
and You examine no one's sins but mine,
as if You had no claim on other men?
Just see your servant's suffering and misery.
Just see his soul, a vulture in a trap,
and I will be your slave forevermore,
and never ask to have my bondage end.’

Shlomo Ben Yehuda ibn Gvirol (1022-1070)

[David]

I am completely devouring the Peter Cole translations of Medieval Jewish poets. I find his word choices to be the lightest and most direct. Cole's first paragraph about Ibn Gabirol is so compelling, "His metaphysics emerge from desire: his ethics evolve to a science of sense... He is the most modern of the Hebrew Medievals: the most foreign to a modernist approach..." Ibn Gabirol and many of the other Medieval poets are very contrary to modernism because they add decoration and flourish to their work- it celebrates the sensuous and indulges beauty. In contrast to the Modernist approach of privileging stark utility and geometry. I cannot imagine a more rich time for Jewish poetry and creativity (although as a Leonard Cohen fan I wonder if his generation of Montreal Jewish poets will be remembered this way). There was something special about Muslim Spain from 900-1200 C.E.

Reading Ibn Gabirol's ROYAL CROWN, which is included in this collection, also illustrates the reconciling of popular planetary and astrological beliefs with Jewish theology. It is an interesting reflection tool to compare my own reconciling of Jewish theology with my beliefs compared to how Ibn Gabirol does it with his beliefs about the power of planets and astrology which seems antiquated. He describes this mix of planetary power and G-d ruling over all with such poetic grandeur and the beauty is very appealing.