Oh, you that sleep in the bosom of childhood,
how long will you rest there?
Know that youth is shaken off like straw!
Do you think boyhood lasts for ever?
Get up, go out and see the grey heralds,
who have come to rebuke you.
Shake off Time as birds shake off the dew-drops of the night.
Soar like a swallow to find freedom from your sins
and from the vagaries of Fortune, that rage like a sea.
Pursue your King,
at one with the souls
who flock towards the bounty of God.
Yehudah Halevi (1075 – 1141) Spain
Translated by T. Carmi
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