All the creatures of earth and heaven
together as one bear witness in saying:
the Lord is One and One
is his name.
Your path has thirty-two courses
and all who fathom your mystery see them,
and know in the mystery that all is yours-
that you alone, O Lord, are king.
All the creatures of earth
and heaven
together as one bear witness in saying:
the Lord is One and One is his name.
Hearts find, observing creation,
all-being-but-you knows variation-
in number and weight is all calibration
and all from a single shephard derive.
All the creatures of earth
and heaven
together as one bear witness in saying:
the Lord is One and One is his name.
From limit to limit your signs exist-
north through south, east into west-
earth and sky for you bear witness,
each in a way of its own-
but all the creatures of
earth and heaven
together as one bear witness in saying:
the Lord is One and One is his name.
All flows from you in extension;
you endure through others' exhaustion;
therefore all being honors your splendor
from beginning to end, there's one father alone,
and all the creatures of earth and heaven
together as one bear witness in saying:
the Lord is One and One is his name.
Quoted after: Cole, Peter (Trans.) (2001). Selected Poems of Solomon Ibn Gabirol. Princeton, Oxford: Princeton University Press. P.124.
Last updated: 2003/10/23