XX. Saturn

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

XX.

Who shall reason of Thy greatness?
For Thou hast encompassed the sphere of
Jupiter with a seventh sphere,
And therein revolveth Saturn.
And his body is greater than that of the earth
ninety-one times by the measure of him,
And he completeth his revolution in thirty years of his course,
And stirreth up wars,
And spoliation and captivity and famine,
For such is his appointed task;
And devastateth the lands,
And rooteth up kingdoms
According to the will of Him
"Who hath appointed him to His service,
Even such strange service."