Selected Poems of Shmuel HaNagid

Selected Poems of Shmuel HaNagid by HaNagid, Shmuel. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780691011202.

The first major poet of the Hebrew literary renaissance of Moslem Spain, Shmuel Ben Yosef Ha-Levi HaNagid (993-1056 c.e.) was also the Prime Minister of the Muslim state of Granada, battlefield commander of the non-Jewish Granadan army, and one of the leading religious figures in a medieval Jewish world that stretched from Andalusia to Baghdad. Peter Coles groundbreaking versions of HaNagids poems capture the poets combination of secular and religious passion, as well as his inspired linking of Hebrew and Arabic poetic practice. This annotated Selected Poems is the most comprehensive collection of HaNagids work published to date in English. "The Multiple Troubles of Man" The multiple troubles of man, my brother, like slander and pain, amaze you? Consider the heart which holds them all in strangeness, and doesnt break. "Id Suck Bitter Poison from the Vipers Mouth" Id suck bitter poison from the vipers mouth and live by the basilisks hole forever, rather than suffer through evenings with boors, fighting for crumbs from their table.