Page:Chapters on Jewish literature (IA chaptersonjewish00abra).pdf/116

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Yet hide not thou thy face from me,

Nor cast me out afar from thee;

But when thou bidd’st my life to cease,

O may’st thou lead me forth in peace

Unto the world to come, to dwell

Among thy pious ones, who tell

Thy glories inexhaustible.

There let my portion be with those

Who to eternal life arose;

There purify my heart aright.

In thy light to behold the light.

Raise me from deepest depths to share

Heaven's endless jays of praise and prayer,

That I may evermore declare:

Though thou wast angered, Lord, I will give thanks to thee,

For past is now thy wrath, and thou dost comfort me.

Ibn Gebirol stood a little outside and a good deal above the circle of the Jewish poets who made this era so brilliant. Many of them are now forgotten; they had their day of popularity in Toledo, Cordova, Seville, and Granada, but their poems have not survived.

In the very year of Ibn Gebirol’s death Moses Ibn Ezra was born. Of his life little is certain, but it is known that he was