XIV. Venus

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

XIV.

Who shall understand Thy mysteries?
For thou hast encompassed the second sphere with a third sphere,
And therein a brightness (Venus) like a queen amid her hosts,
And her garments adorned like a bride’s,
And in eleven months she fulfilleth her circuit,
And her body to that of the earth is as one to thirty and seven,
To those who know her secret and understand her.
And she reneweth in the world, by the will of her Creator,
Peace and prosperity, dancing and delight,
And songs and shouts of joy,
And the love-cries of bride and bridegroom on their canopies.
And it is she conspireth the ripening of fruit
And other vegetation,
"From the precious things of the fruits of the sun,
And from the precious things of the yield of the moons."