Ephraim Luzzatto (1729-1792)

<plain_text><page sequence="1">Ephraim Luzzatto (1729-1792). By Mrs. R. N. Salaman. Italy has produced many distinguished Jewish scholars. Not baffled by periods of severe persecution, lasting until the fall of the Papal States in 1859 and persisting, to some extent, in Rome until the end of the Pope's dominion in 1870, Jewish philosophers, Rabbis, poets, and physicians, meet us through every period of Italian history. Thus Jewish literary activity in Italy much resembles that of Spain; but whereas, in Spain, Arabic models were employed by the poets, in Italy we perceive some indications of the influence of the Renaissance. With Azariah dei Rossi (1513-1578) begins the new science, with Moses Haim Luzzatto (1707) the new Hebrew drama. They were not actually the first in these fields, but they were the earliest of importance. The two tendencies we shall find united in Ephraim Luzzatto, who was at once a man of science and a poet ?following not so much the Spanish tradition as the path of Dante and the Italians. Padua and the province of Gorizia were the homes of the famous Luzzatto family. Ephraim Luzzatto was born in 1729 in San Dan? iele, Friuli, close to Gorizia. The little collection of poems, H^K D^Tiyjn (?? These are the Children of Youth "), which will be discussed in this paper, was almost entirely composed, as the title-page ex? pressly asserts, in the author's early years in Italy, although the volume was not published until a much later date in London. Ephraim Luzzatto's generation formed one of several consecu? tive generations of physicians in the Luzzatto family. Ephraim was the eldest son of Dr. Raphael Luzzatto, and there were two other sons, both doctors, Isaac and Menasseh. In a genealogical table published in the Gedenkbuch to Samuel David Luzzatto (Berlin, 1900), Isaac's name is wrongly given as that of the eldest son, whereas in</page><page sequence="2">86 EPHRAIM LUZZATTO. an essay by Dr. Brann on " Die Familie Lnzzatto " in the same volume, Isaac is rightly described as the younger child. " Ephraim, eldest son of Raphael," says Dr. Brann, " with his cousins Moses Haim and Samuel David Luzzatto, belongs to the shining threefold con? stellation which illuminates the poetic heaven of the new Hebrew of Italy in modern times." Isaac also was a poet. In the Almanzi MS. (British Museum Add. 27004), which contains a manuscript copy of the poems of Ephraim Luzzatto, made from the 1768 edition, there are seventy five poems by Isaac1 entitled pnX* miSin Pi/N* These are still unpublished, with the exception of one poem printed in Wessley's *&amp;f*bty Carmoli, in his Histoire des Medecins Juifs, gives the date of Ephraim's birth as 1729, and Isaac's as 1730, and says that they took their doctorate on the same day, May 27, 1751, at the University of Padua. Isaac appears to have returned to San Daniele, where he remained with his family, through the intervention of the inhabitants, even after the Jews were driven out thence in 1777. He died in 1803. Rahel Morpurgo, Hebraist and poetess, a pupil of S. D. Luzzatto, was his granddaughter. But to return to Ephraim. After obtaining his doctorate he remained at Padua for some years, but in 1763 he came to London, whence he addressed the poem "Vpn *nK pn?* (No. 30 in the collection) to his brother. In London he was appointed physician to the hos? pital of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews (Beth Holim). In 17923 he left London to return to Italy, but died on the way, at Lausanne, where he had gone to consult a specialist. Franz Delitzsch communicated to the Literaturblatt des Orients (1840, No. 1, p. 7) some remarks on Luzzatto, worthy of attention. 1 Fol. 21, ff. In the same MS. are some genealogical notes. These are printed in the British Museum Catalogue of Hebrew and Samaritan MSS., vol. iii. p. 265. There is another copy of Isaac's poems in the Bodleian, Cat. Neubauer, No. 1994, p. 683. Another work by Isaac is included in the British Museum MS. (fol. 48) entitled ^fcWlJD n*WD. Isaac is described in these MSS. as ^J-tfD ISD 2 See 5)D?Dn 1784, p. 160. 3 The date is authenticated also in the British Museum MS. already cited, fol. la.</page><page sequence="3">EPHRAIM LUZZATTO. 87 Having noted with what success the Italian school of Hebrew poets imitated the form and style of Italian poetry, Delitzsch 4 quotes a reply, from London, to some inquiries he had made concerning Luzzatto from David Aaron de Sola (1796-1860),5 the well-known translator of the liturgy, the editor with M. J. Raphall of portions of the Pentateuch and of the Mishnah. De Sola speaks of the intimacy of Luzzatto with the Mendes da Costa family in London (see No. 47 in the poems). Further he says : " His duties as physician to the hospital belonging to the community obliged him to be present many hours, during which he would amuse himself by writing on the backs of his medical prescriptions, or on any scrap of waste paper, short poems or satirical remarks about the disease, the patients, the directors or attendants of the hospital, or about anyone who came under his notice. A chest full of such papers was found when he left London, but when the hospital was temporarily moved on account of alterations, the papers were burnt by some ignorant persons who, as usually happens, regarded these writings as useless because they could not read them." De Sola proceeds to tell a few incidents to illustrate Luzzatto's character and type of mind. The following appears to be characteristic of his rather startling fondness for playing with words : " When Luzzatto had once, for a special occasion, made a poem for a friend, he was requested to sign his name beneath it. He refused to do this for some time, and when pressed for the reason, wrote: w Dinr6 'jvm mn ojtt ba o Behold I do not wish to sign my name, for I am bti (a God) and not (a man). When his friends wished to be enlightened as to how he could be so presumptuous as to apply such a text to himself, he told them that, had they understood him, they would have seen that not presumption but modesty and diffidence had prompted 4 In his Zur Geschichte der J?dischen Poesie (Leipzig, 1836) Delitzsch makes several references to Luzzatto, especially p. 93. 5 According to J. E., vol. xi. p. 432, De Sola " published, in German, a Bio? graphy of Ephraim Luzzatto." I have not come across anything beyond the letter of Delitzsch in the Orient.</page><page sequence="4">88 EPHRAIM LUZZATTO. him to use this text and to refuse his signature. i For,' he continued, ' I am only '^'H (initials of Ephraim Luzzatto) and not (a distinguished man),' which was a witty answer. Although," says de Sola, " I myself cannot admire this play with texts of such sacred stature and their misuse for frivolous equivocation." The same correspondent tells Delitzsch another story, rather unwillingly it appears, and " hoping it is not true," all the more, he says, because of the well-known saying nihil nisi bonum which Hebrew scholars expressed with equal truth and more wit: "H?ft D*t?HHp nH? '"VW This " apocryphal anecdote " tells that Luzzatto allowed himself a good deal of freedom with regard to the Rabbinic law, and often gave his talents free play to satirise and jest. Having been called one day, professionally, to the Chief Rabbi, he asked for pen, ink, and paper to write a prescription. As it was Sabbath and the indisposition was slight, neither the Rabbi nor his family would grant him these. But it happened that he had pen and ink in his pocket, so, tearing a leaf out of a book, he wrote something like the following : &lt;c On this holy Sabbath day . . . may healing come to the Haham, the perfect, the just, the pious, the meek (and other flattering titles), greatest among Rabbis, . . . May the Holy One, blessed be He, send him perfect healing, &amp;e." Four satirical lines in Hebrew followed, which the informant could not recall.6 De Sola further tells in his letter to Delitzsch that he had seen a legal document concerning Luzzatto, in which the point of controversy is the carrying of the dagger on Sabbath. " From this," he says, " it appears that physicians at this time used to carry daggers, and that Jewish physicians, on account of the then legal severity against the Jews in England, aroused great friction through their sharing in this custom." De Sola speaks in this connection also of a pamphlet or small book of about twelve quarto pages in prose, in which the author repudiates the insults of his detractors. " The style is excellent. Nevertheless," the letter continues, " this little book is hardly worth notice because of its special character and legal tendency." It is anonymous, but de Sola inclines strongly to the opinion that 6 Mr. Israel Solomons informs me that he has recently unearthed a portrait, painted in oils, of Moses Cohen D'Azevedo, at one time Haham at the Bevis Marks Synagogue, who must have been the Rabbi connected with this incident.</page><page sequence="5">EPHRAIM LUZZATTO. 89 Luzzatto is the author, as he knows no contemporary of his living in England who would have been capable of writing such beautiful prose which, he says, that of this little book undoubtedly is. Of the poems, D**"WJ?1 flStt* de ^ola remarks that none of the MSS. are to be found in England, although a considerable number of them had been written and left there ; and that the few printed copies had almost all gone abroad ; and further that he, de Sola, had spent eight nights in transcribing a printed copy which a friend had lent him.7 We know little more of Luzzatto's life in London. Mr. Israel Solomons, who has contributed some interesting information on Luzzatto to Notes and Queries (July 24, 1915), has kindly called my attention to the following paragraph in John Taylor's Records of My Life.8 Taylor writes : I knew him [Bibb, an engraver] very early in life, and occasionally saw him until near his death. He was much inclined to gaming, and took me once to a hazard table in Gerrard Street, Soho, where I saw Dr. Luzzatto, an Italian physician, who visited my father [John Taylor, 1724-1787, oculist to George III.], and was a very agreeable and intelligent man. [Robert] Baddeley [1733-1794], the actor, was also there. A dispute arose between Baddeley and the doctor which was likely to terminate seriously, but the rest of the assembly interposed, lest the character of the house should be called in question, and their nocturnal orgies suppressed. The house went under the name of the Royal Larder, which was merely a cover to conceal its real purpose, that of a place for the meeting of gamesters.9 The small volume of Hebrew poems, DHiyjH H^tf &gt; was published in quarto size by G. Richardson and S. Clark in London in 1766. A copy of this edition is to be found in the British Museum. 7 The following MSS. in Mr. Elkan Adler's collection contain poems by Ephraim Luzzatto : 988, 1817, and 1150. 8 Records of My Life, by the late John Taylor, Esq. (author of Monsieur Tonsen), in two volumes. Vol. ii. London : Edward Ball, Holies Street, 1832. John Taylor (1757-1832) wrote innumerable addresses, prologues, and epi? logues for the stage. He says he made suggestions to Boswell. Wordsworth sent him his poems. (Dictionary of National Biography.) 9 A portrait of Ephraim Luzzatto, signed nOT *1D1D ^K13Dy, was published by the late Mr. Massel. See Gallery of Hebrew Poets, Part I., No: 28 (Greenberg, 1903). The portait is reproduced from a crayon drawing, the whereabouts of which at the present day appears to be unknown.</page><page sequence="6">90 EPHRAIM LUZZATTO. Hence, the oft-repeated statement?made by Letteris in his preface to the 1839 edition?that the 1798 edition was the earliest, is inac? curate. Apparently only one hundred copies of this first edition were printed, but these more than met the immediate demand, for, two years later, the unsold copies were re-issued with a new title-page. The interest of Hebraists rapidly increased, as may be seen from the following remarks in Hameassef for Tebet 5545 (1785), p. 49 : These songs are taken from the book D'HII/SH ^2 fhx of the physician Ephraim Luzzatto. It is certain that the words of this book are wholly sweet. But it is not to be found among us, for no more than 100 copies of it were published. We have presented here these songs as examples, to show their beauty before the eyes of all. It may be that we shall stir up the heart of the chief men of Berlin, the heads of the publication department of the Society of D'HtyJ TUn, to publish the book anew for the good of young scholars who love poetry. This appreciation, coming from the Meassefim, is of peculiar interest, as it was printed during the poet's lifetime. Eleven years later the suggestion was carried out, so that in 1796 a third octavo edition was published in Berlin under the title blp-10 In this edition the punctuation is modified, and there are certain verbal variants. Some of the lines are rearranged and there are new descriptive headings, but the main difference is that the few Italian pieces are omitted. In this edition, moreover, the poems are, at the end, wrongly ascribed to Moses Haim Luzzatto, and the title, " The Voice of the Lion," is explained " to indicate that he was head among the poets, as the lion is among the beasts." Nor does this exhaust the editions, for in 1839 there was pub? lished a fourth edition in Vienna (12?), edited by Letteris.11 Some separate poems too have been republished in various Hebrew period? icals, as well as a few others previously unpublished.12 The Vienna 10 Hosea v. 14. 11 Letteris printed his edition from Almanzi's MS. copy of the 1768 London edition. This copy is now in the British Museum. 12 See bibliography in Steinschneiders Bodleian Catalogue, p. 906; cf. Delitzsch, op. cit., pp. 92-3. Robert Young's Israelitish Gleaner and Biblical Repository prints No. 7 (with an English version), p. 4; Nos. 1 and 21, p. 49. H. Hurwitz's Elements of the Hebrew Language (Second Edition, London, 1832) also contained a number of the poems.</page><page sequence="7">EPHRAIM LUZZATTO. 91 edition replaces the forty-third poem of the original issue by another, a sonnet deprecating card-playing, not included by the author in the 1766 edition. The omitted poem might have been left out by the author without literary loss, and with some moral gain. A translation of the descriptive headings of the fifty-five poems will be found at the end of this paper. The striking feature about the poems is not the thought con? tained in them?indeed, the ideas are often hardly worth preserving ?but the demonstration of the adaptability of Hebrew to measures other than the Arabic and the dexterity displayed by the poet. Luzzatto completely abandons the metres of mediaeval Hebrew poetry and shapes Hebrew into modern forms with surprising facility. In one poem (No. 15) he even attempts a strict iambic metre by using a Sheva for every first syllable, thus : For this measure he finds a suitable refrain in Ps. xlv. verse 5: altering the order of the words to suit the rhyme in each verse. This lightness of touch is well shown in the wedding song, No. 47, celebrating the marriage of Joseph Mendes da Costa to Judith Salvador, ending thus: nby now -a^r hy\ nnn nra ?^y 'it -py id^ which can be put into the identical form in English : And Salvador for ages more A very wealth of joy shall reap; And one shall rise at Israel's cries To set the city on its heap. And again in the clever, untranslatable mass of puns in the</page><page sequence="8">92 EPHRAIM LUZZATTO. sonnet No. 48, the offering sent to a girl whose parents had at length permitted her to marry the man of her choice : *nK3 ]r\ niDTp hok^ man nn bit Here the poet appears to be rhyming and punning for very pleasure in the words themselves. There are many serious and rather dull sonnets, perfect in form. I translate the first poem in the book, a good specimen of Hebrew in iambic metre. Who is the man that seeketh peace for aye, To shelter from the tempest evermore ? Let him not turn from walking in my way; This is the shrine of good; yea, this the door. Glad to be rich, yet fear not ruin's day ; Thyself be wise, but scorn thou not the boor; Go forth to meet all men in fair array; Honour the old; on youth thy kindness pour. Except thou judge each word, strive not to speak; And judge not aught thou hast not first sought out; And things too high for clay do thou not seek; Reprove another not, if sin be thine ; At stranger's scorn turn not in wrath about. Let e'er the fear of God before thee shine. Another apparently uninspired sonnet is No. 53, evidently written in later years in England, and interesting from the historical stand? point : When King George III. sent a Ship into the Heart of the Sea to bring Charlotte, Princess of Mecklenburg, before him : Awake, awake, O wind of the east, this day: Blow on the mighty ship that waits for thee. The King shall find redemption, since away His heart had journeyed out beyond the sea. So shall his glory now be doubly seen, For soon at his right hand shall stand the Queen.</page><page sequence="9">EPHEAIM LUZZATTO. 93 Behold she comes ! Charlotte?she comes in sight! The King has sudden joy; his spirit lives. Now shall he rule from sea to sea in might, And she rule him with power her beauty gives. And France, at sound of them, shall tremble sore? In God their horn be raised for evermore ! In a volume called HlpV* *3D*D (xxii. 24) occurs a poem which is not included in this collection, entitled HUIHD 13D ("Bill of Divorce "). It has the sonnet arrangement, but short unequal lines and a light style not usually associated with the sonnet form : I hate thee, I reject thee now, Just as in other days I loved thee. Stilled is my spirit, seeing how Out of my heart I have removed thee. I shall remember thee no more, 0 thou whose paths turn every way ! After thy falsehoods, as of yore, 1 shall no longer seek to stray. Me only hast thou chosen apart; Yea, thou hast said it with thine heart? And all thy words were lies! With but another fronting thee, So art thou forthwith false to me. O turn away thine eyes ! The song is accompanied by the following note in Hebrew, signed by Alexander Zederbaum : " I had among other writings a pleasant song by the renowned poet and doctor, R. Ephraim Luzzatto, but I could not find it among his songs, published in the book DHIJ/JPI H^tf in the former or latter edition. I showed it to many, and they good scholars, and it was new in their eyes, and therefore I said : I will copy it out for thee, and if it be true that it has not yet been published, I hope thou wilt give it a name and a future, for it is very sweet and</page><page sequence="10">94 EPHRAIM LUZZATTO. pleasant; so that it may add yet another glorious rose to the poetic crown that is on his head." It is surprising to find a Hebrew Sestina. In this attractive form the six end words of the lines of one verse are repeated in all the six verses in varying order. One Sestina is to be found among Luzzatto's poems, the Love Song, No. 24. I quote the first verse in Hebrew and translate the whole: pttn nuaa maa \rvjn ra\ ny&gt; vrno nnaj m mt obtra mp &gt;nsyp t^abna p p ijia^n oawa m?yan tpotio ma am &gt; Vaa iv LOVE SONG. Sestina. This is my friend, more sweet than maids of earth, More alien than the creatures of the forest; Harder than any flint, more cold than snow, She kindles in my heart the fires of summer. All dark it is with me, all cloud and night: She sits before me, purer than the sun. I flee away, afar from this the sun; I measure with my steps the breadth of earth? I wander to and fro all day and night Over the mountains, valleys, field and forest, Winter and spring-time, harvest-time and summer, All through the tempest, rain and hail and snow. Like wax I am, like butter or like snow; For all these melt away before the sun. I hoped for spring, but sudden comes the summer, Lo, changed for my sake are the laws of earth. I am like fire, which, kindled in the forest, Grows to a greater burning night by night.</page><page sequence="11">EPHRAIM LUZZATTO. 95 When will it eome ? When will it come?the night ? And soothe my soul as if with flakes of snow ? My strength is parched as trees are in the forest, My bones are smitten by the burning sun. Outcast, a wanderer, I walk the earth, In vain, each day, athirst for fruits of summer. Let heat bear rule in winter, cold in summer, If only I could rest by day or night; Let all the fish run over all the earth, The serpent rise and fly towards the sun, The fire, in bond of peace, embrace the snow, The lion roam the city, man the forest. My fair one's name, I write on trees in the forest, On hoar-frost in the cold, on flowers in summer. Reft of her image, as without the sun, At night I call the day, by day the night. That vision lost?the crimson and the snow? I freeze, I flame, through all my days on earth. It will be seen that Luzzatto often sang of love and marriage, but the greater number of his verses are written in honour of various friends and great men among the Jews of his day in Italy. Some of their names are still known to-day. Aaron Haim Pinkerli (No. 4) was a Rabbi of Verona. He apparently acquired the name Haim during his illness.13 The Hefetz, or Gentili family (addressed in Nos. 12, 27, 32, 33, and 49), was a famous one in Gorizia. According to the note over the poem No. 12, Luzzatto appears to have spent a convivial Purim evening with Manasseh Hefetz, and sends him an exaggerated apology for his uproarious gaiety.14 Another member of the same family, Raruch Hefetz, is mentioned in No. 27 as having obtained his degree. To greet a friend with a Hebrew poem on this event was very 13 SeeMortara, Indice Alfabetico dei Rabbini e scrittori Israelite. Padua, 1886. *D3n JVDTD p. 50. Gl?ckel Hameln, born 1647, was a daughter of L?b Pinkerli, Parnass of Hamburg. (Die Memorien der Gl?ckel von Hamelin. Ed. Kauffmann. Frankfurt, 1896, p. xvi.) I* In MS. Brit. Mus. Add. 27004, vol. 246, No. 10 of the pntf* nnbW is a poem by his brother Isaac in reply to this one.</page><page sequence="12">96 EPHRAIM LUZZATTO. usual in those days. Jacob Hai Hefetz (Nos. 32 and 33), known as Jacob Hai ben Menasseh Gentiii, died in 1749. He was Rabbi at Gorizia, a prominent man?poet, preacher, and Talmudist. Some of his works were printed in Venice in 1709. Jacob Ergas of Livorno, or Leghorn, mentioned in the poem on the u Rejoicing of the Law," (No. 13) no doubt belonged to the same family as the celebrated Cabalist, Joseph Ergas of Leghorn (1685-1730). Judah Ayas (No. 20) was Rabbi in Algiers, and the author of liturgical writings and works on the Shulhan Arukh. The first words of the poem are derived from his treatise, nTliT*? DMTl- Isaac Morpurgo is referred to in No. 29. At least one member of the Morpurgo family was related to the Luzzattos. Rahel Morpurgo, the poetess, has already been referred to above. The song (No. 47) on the marriage of Joshua Mendes da Costa and Judith Salvador was undoubtedly written in London.15 Moses Vali and Israel Treves (No. 50) were Rabbis of Padua, both Cabalists and great scholars. Between 1721 and 1767 Moses Vali wrote a commentary on the whole Bible, which, however, remains unpublished. Under this scholar Moses Haim Luzzatto studied Cabala. In No. 51 the reference to " Rachel" may be to the poet's wife?though I have not found elsewhere any direct reference to his domestic life. Many subjects are lightly touched upon in Luzzatto's verses, and it is soon realised that as a whole they are not definitely Jewish, Greek ideas occasionally show themselves, and once even Apollo36 is appealed to, in the bridal sonnet (No. 16) beginning : If but the golden lord who brings the light Approve my song that hath so little grace, Then with pure lips and words attuned aright The lovers' glory I will sing. . . . In a few songs Luzzatto uses Hebrew words which have a meaning 15 See J. E., vol. iv. p. 290, for genealogy of the Da Costa family in Eng? land, and the record of the marriage of Joshua Mendes da Costa with Judith Salvador in the eighteenth century. 16 On Samuel Romanelli's similar use of Greek myth, cf. Delitzsch, op. cit.r p. 92.</page><page sequence="13">EPHEAIM LUZZATTO. 97 also as Italian words, as, for instance, in the epitaph on someone's tomb (No. 25), which must be compared with the Italian before the similarity of the words can be recognised : This practice appears to have been known and deprecated in earlier times. Menahem Lonzano in Jin* ^Dtt? (Venice, 1618), p. 142a, writes: . . And I have seen authorities who inveigh against the authors of songs and praises to God, setting them to melodies which are not composed by Jews ; but they are wrong, for there is nothing objectionable in the practice.17 But what is justly reprehensible is a small number of songs which begin with words similar to the ver? nacular . . . and it seems to him (the writer of such a song) that he has performed a great feat, and he does not know that a song of this kind is unfit for the altar and unacceptable. For he who utters it remembers the words of the unchaste characters of the song, and his heart and thoughts are distracted towards them. In such a case are those who say 5^*1 *jj ^or Senora, &amp;c." Other examples of this type of playing with words occur in Luzzatto in Nos. 37 and 44. In several poems Luzzatto speaks of physicians?usually cynically ?and here the phenomenon of the combined powers of poet and physician carries us back for a moment to his far greater predecessor, Jehuda Halevi, and we suddenly realise another point of resemblance between the two. Halevi's finest feeling and deepest passion are poured out in his songs to Zion. Luzzatto wrote three poems to Zion Ah! Puom misero e Se notte, e di, pene e lai, ohime! Suol cibar. Chi nasee muor; animati, A voi giammai Avvenga mal Ah ! che passo ! *T8 nW 17 The writer himself frequently used this device. VOL. IX. H</page><page sequence="14">98 EPHRAIM LUZZATTO. (Nos. 35, 36, and 52), and here we find the warmth and depth of expression, somewhat lacking in the other verses, whose only charm is their lightness and dexterity. The poems consist of two beautiful sonnets, one entitled &lt;e For Zion's sake I will not be silent," and the other, " For Jerusalem's sake I will not hold my Peace," and the one long poem of the collection, " For Mount Zion which is desolate." I cannot more fittingly close this slight sketch than by quoting some lines from those songs where the poet's truest feeling seems to speak. This is the sestet of the former sonnet: npn? inbso by mm bip dj na? nim? &gt;3 ,nDfn^ niKQi tp&amp; noa nnn T TT ? ? ; ? ? T ?jjisn ?a'stinn -man oi&gt; ? T ? - ? T - With voice like jackals' wail I mourn anew ; Amazed, I pant, I shout aloud, I cry? For in thy ruin I am smitten too. In plaints I pour my longing and my pain; No peace for me until the day is nigh, The shining day when thou shalt stand again. The long poem begins : ibnri lisvt vniniD ok xsri p? ^33 &gt;{b bvs b$ nyr If earth heaped all the essence of her good, To me 'twould be a thing of no delight; For having seen mine exiled people's woe, While yet a child I wearied of my life. Zion I found a ruin, and the House A silent heap;?and evermore my soul Was crying from the empty wastes within.</page><page sequence="15">EPHBAIM LUZZATTO. 99 With all Luzzatto's university training and all his affection for San Daniele, the home of his childhood, the thought of the tragedy of Israel moves him to write of it with a feeling of lifelong sorrow. Insensibly our sympathy deepens, and we look back on him as an arresting and complete character in the story of the Jews in Italy and in England. January 15, 1917. TRANSLATION OF THE HEADINGS OF THE SONGS. 1. The Statutes and the Judgments which man should do and thereby live. 2. On desirable Youths clothed in perfection who forsake the paths of uprightness. 3. Is not this my Word to the Child of Delight and the accomplished player ; for the loved one refused to have anything to do with him and despised him ; and it came to pass that when he thought to quench Love, I encouraged him with my just right hand to uphold it and to strengthen it. 4. On the Capture of the Ark of God the exalted Chief Rabbi, Aaron Haim Pinkerli, in the Holy Congregation of Verona ; for he came to Padua for healing, " and behold ! terror ! " and he died there. 5. The Bridegroom's Voice. 6. The Bride's Voice. 7. On the Day of First Fruits when a Scroll of the Law was offered, a new offering to the Lord. 8. When Love came to Love and marriage to marriage, and the days were the days of the first-fruits. 9. I confess my Transgressions to the Lord for I repent me that I committed them. 10. The Song shall be for You as on the eve of the Festival of Ingathering at the end of the year. 11. This Day ye go forth, in the Month Abib, which I have translated from Metastasio, the imperial lyrist. And now have no care to seek him in his temple, for your eyes shall behold that my heart desireth to approach him, and that mouth to mouth I speak with him.</page><page sequence="16">100 EPHRAIM LTJZZATTO. 12. A Drunkard lifts up his Hands (in penitence) with a gift for the Master Menasseh Hefetz. For on that night (Purim) after he had eaten under his shadow, and after he had drunken, he became intoxicated, and he undressed and fled, and went out into the street naked and bare. 13. To the Princes of the Children of Israel Saul Bonfils and Jacob Ergas, princes of famous Livorno [or Leghorn] when they arose from the midst of the assembly to walk in the law of the Lord, on her bridal day, on the day of the joy of her heart. 14. On the " Hind " of Love who halts between two opinions, whether, to go after Baal (a husband) or not. And my rhyme approached to urge her. 15. This song is all true Seed, and its accents are pegs in a firm place. [See note on metre above.] 16. On a Bridal Dap. 17. I" have parted from my Soul and my word drops on her. 18. Concerning a Man, my Friend, when he directed his steps to the way of Trieste to take him a wife from thence. 19. Concerning his (Isaac's) wife, for She is Glorious. 20. A Letter. to Chief Rabbi Judah Ayas when he had been ill and was recovered from his sickness. 21. On the Physician who fell down destroyed in the net of Love. 22. All the Weariness which Desire found to fight against. 23. The End of All Flesh hath come before me. 24. A Song of Love. 25. An Epitaph on Someone's Tombstone? Hebrew and Italian in the same words. 26. Words of Strife in my Gates between the soul and passion, on account of the graceful doe who loves me. 27. The Song of my Beloved, the exalted Scholar Baruch Hefetz, when they placed the crown of Philosophy and Medicine on his head.</page><page sequence="17">EPHRAIM LUZZATTO. 101 28. Love is Strong as Death. 29. When the honoured Woman Malca bore a son?to revive the soul of her husband Isaac Morpurgo? in addition to the three daughters already there. 30. " Deal gently with the Lad " To my brother Isaac, to guide him in the way of wisdom. 31. When the Bridegroom came forth from his Chamber and the Bride from her Canopy, and all the people saw and shouted? I said in my haste: 32. Words of Comfort to the wise and exalted Jacob Hai Hefetz, Rabbi of Gorizia, when he was ill with kidney trouble and was not able to rest. . . . And all the Congregation of Israel stood in the House of the Lord on a day of Fasting to offer supplications for his salvation; and the spirit of the Lord began to move him and he was eased. 33. A Lament in Eternal Memory since the honoured leader referred to in the previous poem has come to his fathers in peace. And he rested on the seventh day from all his sickness which he bare, on the 11th of the month Bui, in the year 5509 of the creation (1749). 34. I will sing now to my Beloved, Uri Morpurgo, when he took Rebecca as a help for him. And the complaint of the sons of song ceased from me, which had said to me all the day, Where is thy harp ?? 35. For Zion's sake I will not be silent. 36. And for Jerusalem's sake I will not hold my Peace, 37. A Song or Psalm for the Marriage Day and the echo speaks to him in the language of Italy. 38. This Song?its tongue is a sharp sword, and physicians are a sport to it. 39. Yet this one speaks, and this one comes,?and this also bringing vanity-? about the three transgressions of the sons of the physicians ; are they not Idolatry, Immorality, and Bloodshed ? 40. In the Mouth of the third Song, there is no word of abomination, but its object is to teach what should be the law of the Physician and his work. 41. On the Marriage Day. 42. On every Proud and Exalted qne.</page><page sequence="18">102 EPHRAIM LTJZZATTO. 43. Against the Game of Cards. 44. The Sun shines forth on this second Riddle, and in each place in which I mention the Italian names " Sole o Febo " I will come to thee and warn thee with this sign.18 45. On the day of Betrothal. 46. A Recompense which the Wayfarer offers to the rich Man, for his kindness which was wonderful to him, when he fell sick in his house and he sustained him. 47. To the pleasant Youth Joshua Mendes da Costa, who strengthened himself in his love and took to wife Judith, daughter of the high and exalted Joseph Salvador. 48. An Offering sent to the graceful doe, when the anger of her father and mother was appeased and they did not withhold from her him whom her soul loved. 49. I will take upon my Lips the names of the twelve princes among the sons of Gorizia, who were assembled under the Lord to listen to instruction, a day's portion every day. 50. And these are the Names of the Men who hold fast to the Law, Moses Vali and Israel Treves, inhabitants of Padua, who take sweet counsel together Sabbath by Sabbath at the time of Minhah. 51. And as for me, ivhen I came from Padua, Rachel died by me. 52. For Mount Zion, which is desolate. 53. When King George III. sent a ship into the heart of the sea to bring Charlotte, princess of Mecklen? burg, before him. 54. Who am I and what is my House ? 55. Words on the Closed Book. 18 This song is not published in the book D*"11Wn *02 n^&amp;S, but one of the friends of the Editor brought it to light for the first time in DTiyH ^VD2 5566. (It replaces a ribald one?a riddle?in the first edition. See reference above.)</page></plain_text>