XVIII. Mars

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

p. 96

XVIII.

Who can know Thy wondrous works?
For Thou hast encompassed the sphere of the
Sun with a fifth sphere,
And therein Mars like a king in his palace,
And in eighteen months he completeth his circuit.
And his measure to the body of the earth
Is as one and five-eighths to one.
And this is the scope of his greatness,
That he is like a terror-striking warrior
Whose shield of red gives him might,
And who stirreth up wars,
And slaughter and destruction,
With men smitten of the sword
And consumed of flame,
Their sap burned to dryness;
And years of dearth
And fiery burnings and thunders and hailstones
And piercings and withdrawings of the sword in consonance with them,
"For their feet run swiftly to commit evil and hasten to shed blood."