Earth's embroidery - Solomon ibn Gabirol

With the ink of its showers and rains,
with the quill of its lightning,
with the hand of its clouds,
winter wrote a letter upon the garden, in purple and blue.

No artist could ever conceive the like of that.
And this is why the earth,
grown jealous of the sky,
embroidered stars in the folds of the flower-beds.

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Solomon ibn Gabirol (1021 - 1058) Spain
Translated by T. Carmi

Source: The Penguin Book of Hebrew Verse, edited and translated by T. Carmi, Penguin, 1981 (LiveJournal).