David Hakohen (also haKohen or Ha-Kohen) was a late thirteenth-century Hebrew liturgical poet from Avignon, who wrote from a Jewish perspective in the troubadouresque tradition.[1][2] His most published work, "Silence and Praise" (Hishtaḥavi u-birkhi), is in the form of a muwashshah, a prelude to prayer. Ironically, the ode pledges that the prayer will be silent. It has been translated into English.[3] It opens like this:
- Bow down, my soul, and kneel before my rock of refuge;
- Praise the Lord and bless Him!
- My lips are too low to sing his high praises.
- My years are too few to recite his glorious works.
- All my days would not suffice to tell his mighty deeds.
Notes
- ^ W. D. Paden and F. F. Paden (2007), Troubadour Poems from the South of France (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer), 231–32.
- ^ Andrew V. Ettin (1994), Speaking Silences: Stillness and Voice in Modern Thought and Jewish Tradition (University of Virginia Press), 37.
- ^ The standard edition, in T. Carmi, ed. (1981), The Penguin Book of Hebrew Verse (New York: Viking Press), 396–97, has been partly revised in Paden and Paden, 231–32, and Ettin, 37.
This page was last edited on 16 August 2021, at 22:03