covered with blood, took every single thing he had, and empty-handed,
naked, hungry, and beaten as he is, they shout at him "Be off!" from
every side. Now he lives in narrow streets, in the small towns, hidden
away in holes and corners. He very often hasn't enough to eat, but he
goes on in his old way, creeps into tight places, dances at all the
weddings, loves to meddle, everything concerns him, and where two come
together, he is the third.

I have known him a long time, ever since he was a little boy. He always
struck me as being very wild, but I saw that he was of a noble
disposition, only that he had grown rough from living among strangers. I
loved him very much, but in later years he treated me to hot and cold by
turns. I must tell you that when Yuedel had eaten his fill, he was always
very merry, and minded nothing; but when he had been kicked out by his
landlord, and went hungry, then he was angry, and grew violent over
every trifle. He would attack me for nothing at all, we quarrelled and
parted company, that is, I loved him at a distance. When he wasn't just
in my sight, I felt a great pity for him, and a wish to go to him; but
hardly had I met him than he was at the old game again, and I had to
leave him. Now that I was together with him in my native place, I found
him very badly off, he hadn't enough to eat. The town was small and
poor, and he had no means of supporting himself. When I saw him in his
bitter and dark distress, my heart went out to him. But at such times,
as I said before, he is very wild and fanatical. One day, on the Ninth
of Ab, I felt obliged to speak out, and tell him that sitting in socks,
with his forehead on the ground, reciting Lamentations, would do no
good. Yuedel misunderstood me, and thought I was laughing at Jerusalem.
He began to fire up, and he spread reports of me in the town, and when
he saw me in the distance, he would spit out before me. His anger dated
from some time past, because one day I turned him out of my house; he
declared that I was the cause of all his misfortunes, and now that I was
his neighbor, I had resolved to ruin him; he believed that I hated him
and played him false. Why should Yuedel think that? I don't know.
Perhaps he feels one ought to dislike him, or else he is so embittered
that he cannot believe in the kindly feelings of others. However that
may be, Yuedel continued to speak ill of me, and throw mud at me through
the town; crying out all the while th