22. Judgment

Selected Religious Poems of Solomon ibn Gabirol, tr. by Israel Zangwill, [1923], at sacred-texts.com

p. 35

22

JUDGMENT

My breast I am smiting,
My own sins indicting.
  How then canst Thou draw me
  To strife and thus awe me,
And bring Me to judgment?

My branch hangeth ailing,
My eyelid is failing,
  My aims to derision
  Are turned by the vision
Of Thee bringing judgment.

The creditor calleth,
The dread decree falleth,
  The awful day breaking
  God’s creatures sets quaking
In fear of His judgment.

Through Thy attributes preaching,
Almighty, and teaching,
  O weigh aberration
  In the scale of salvation,
Nor bring us to judgment.

In Thy merciful fashion
Award us compassion,
  That man who but dust is
  May handle with justice
The haters of judgment.

p. 36

Like a vapour evanished,
Man is melted and banished,
  His birth is coëval
  With a harvest of evil,
’Tis Thou must bring judgment.

We await—O behold us—
Thy love to enfold us.
  Did Thy warning not hasten
  Our impulse to chasten?
For the Lord loveth judgment.