‘Tis a fearful thing
to love what death can touch.
A fearful thing
to love, to hope, to dream, to be –
to be,
And oh, to lose.
A thing for fools, this,
And a holy thing,
a holy thing
to love.
For your life has lived in me,
your laugh once lifted me,
your word was gift to me.
To remember this brings painful joy.
‘Tis a human thing, love,
a holy thing, to love
what death has touched.”
Yehuda Halevi was an Andalusian Jewish physician, poet and philosopher. Born in Spain in 1075 or 1086, he died in Jerusalem in 1141, then under Crusader rule.
Halevi is celebrated for both his religious and secular poems, many of which appear in present-day liturgy. His greatest philosophical work is The Kuzari.
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