A Sleepless Night by Yehuda Halevi

A Sleepless Night

A sleepless night in which the hours hang heavy.
      Friends leave tomorrow. Night, lead on softly
and spread your raven wings over dawn’s first rays.
      My tears, raining down on their carriage,
delay their journey; a cloud, raised by my sulking heart,
      veils the break of day from their sight.
If only my sighs would turn to smoke and blaze
      into a scorching fire, hampering their departure
from my tent, at least until I give my consent.


Yehuda Halevi, Poems from the Divan, trans. by Gabriel Levin (London: Anvil Press Poetry, 2002), 35.