Short is man's life, and full of care and sorrow,
This way and that he turns some ease to borrow,
Like to a flower he blooms, and on the morrow
Is gone--a vision of the night.

How does the weight of sin my soul oppress,
Because God's law too often I transgress;
I mourn and sigh, with tears of bitterness
My bed I water all the night.

* * * * *

My youth wanes like a shadow that's cast,
Swifter than eagle's wings my years fly fast,
And I remember not my gladness past,
Either by day or yet by night.

Proclaim we then a fast, a holy day,
Make pure our hearts from sin, God's will obey,
And unto him, with humbled spirit pray
Unceasingly, by day and night.

May we yet hear his words: "Thou art my own,
My grace is thine, the shelter of my throne,
For I am thy Redeemer, I alone;
Endure but patiently this night!"

But his hymns, many of which won a permanent place in the prayer-book,
are not always sad. Often they are warm with hope, and there is a lilt
about them which is almost gay. His chief secular poem, "The Topaz"
(_Tarshish_), is in ten parts, and contains 1210 lines. It is written on
an Arabic model: it contains no rhymes, but is metrical, and the same
word, with entirely different meanings, occurs at the end of several
lines. It needs a good deal of imagination to appreciate Moses Ibn Ezra,
and this is perhaps what Charizi meant when he called him "the poet's
poet."

Another Ibn Ezra, Abraham, one of the greatest Jews of the Middle Ages,
was born in Toledo before 1100. He passed a hard life, but he laughed at
his fate. He said of himself:

If I sold shrouds,
No one would die.
If I sold lamps,
Then, in the sky,
The sun, for spite,
Would shine by night.

Several of Abraham Ibn Ezra's hymns are instinct with the spirit of
resignation. Here is one of them:

I hope for the salvation of the Lord,
In him I trust, when fears my being thrill,
Come life, come death, according to his word,
He is my portion still.

Hence, doubting heart! I will the Lord extol
With gladness, for in him is my desire,
Which, as with fatness, satisfies my soul,
That doth to heaven aspire.

All that is hidden shall mine eyes behold,
And the great Lord of all be known to me,
Him will I serve, his am I as of old;
I ask not to be free