JAPAN

The Stamp of Civilization

APAN hath Western culture? So you say. O vain sophistic thought!

'Tis but the color of its texture that in her life is lightly wrought.

Civilization's higher forms belong to Western men alone.

As for Japan? Why e'en Anti-Semitism in her land is quite unknown.

MAX NORDAU. (Translated by J. F.)

Confidence

SAID the State to the prelate your pay we will with

hold.

Smiled the priest in reply, I scorn your pow'er and gold,

You use your godless might with heavy cruel hand, But back your gifts I fling, nor care for your com

mand,

Nor need our Church fear want; aye, money will be found.

And free 'twill be given-since rich Jews do here

abound.

MAX NORDAU. (Translated by J. F.) i

Ein uralter Spruch

MOST prayers of my childhood days
From memory have fled,

No prayer at meals, at rising,

Nor when I go to bed.

But one I hold in high esteem,
And locms in large proportion;

My stay it is in happy hours,
And staff in my misfortune.

And would you know this pray'r of mine,

Mosaic interwoven?

It is the ancient formula

Boree Peri Hagofen.

HEINRICH Heine.

The Vision of His People

RE yet the morn in glory rose,

ER

While yet I tuned my harp's sweet string,

A change came over me, alas!

I can but wail—I cannot sing!

For frightful dreams I saw by night,

I saw my people-horrid sight!

Israelite

LEON GORDON.

Juan Alfonso Baena, a converted Jew who flourished in the beginning of the 15th Century, made a curious collection of the poems of the Trobadores Espanoles including his own from which Rodrigues de Castro has given copious extracts. Don Santo, who flourished about the year 1360, made the following modest and not inelegant apology for taking his place among the poets of the land which had given him birth:

HE rose that twines a thorny sprig

THE

Will not the less perfume the earth;
Good wine that leaves a creeping twig
Is not the worse for humble birth.

The hawk may be of noble kind

That from a soiled eyrie flew,

And precepts are not the less refined
Because they issue from a Jew.

SANTOB DE Carrion.

NED

Between Two Stools

[ED will not keep the Jewish Sabbath, not he, Because the Church has otherwise ordained; Nor yet the Christian for he does not see

How alt'ring the day can be maintained;
Thus seeming for to doubt of keeping either
He halts betwixt them both and so keeps neither.
JOHN HEATH.

HE

The Rabbi's Present

A RABBI once, by all admired,

Received, of high esteem the sign
From those his goodness thus inspired,
A present of a cask of wine.
But lo! when soon he came to draw,
A miracle in mode as rapid
But quite unlike what Cana saw,
Had turned his wine to water vapid.
The Rabbi never knew the cause,

For miracles are things of mystery;
Though some like this have had their laws
Explained from facts of private history.
His friends whom love did aptly teach,
Wished all to share the gracious task,
So planned to bring a bottle each,

And pour their wine in one great cask.
Now one by chance thought, "None will know,
And with the wine of all my brothers

One pint of water well may go;"

And so by chance thought all the others.

An Epitaph

ANONYMOUS.

ERE lies Nachshon, man of great renown,
Who won much glory in his native town;

'Twas hunger that killed him, and they let him die

They give him statues now, and gaze, and sigh— While Nachshon lived, he badly wanted bread, Now he is gone, he gets a stone instead.

BEN JACOB.

(Translated by Joseph Chotzner.)

All Things To All Men ADAPT thyself to time and circumstance

So wilt thou be untroubled every way. Amongst the wise make wise thy countenance And with the fool the role of dullard play; Roar, if upon a lion thou shouldst chance; But if an ass thou meetest simply bray.

BEN JOSEPH PALQUERA.

(Translated by Harry W. Ettelson.)

The Miser

A MISER once dreamed he had given away

Some bread to a beggar hed'd met in the day.

He woke with a start and solemnly swore
That as long as he lived he would slumber no more.

BEN ZED.

(Translated by Joseph Chotzner.)

The Wife's Treasure

(Midrash Yalkut, Chapter 17)

AT Sidon lived a husband with his wife

For ten long years, leading a tranquil life,
With but a single grief-they had no child,
And, to his barren lot unreconciled,
The man upon it brooded. Then he bent
His steps to Rabbi Simeon, with intent
To be divorced; and to the woman's tears

He steeled his heart, and said: "Ten happy years

In peacefulness with thee, true heart, I spent ;
Staunch wert thou ever, nor a word to smart
Escaped thy lips. And now, before we part,
I will accord the treasure thou dost find
In thy old home best suited to thy mind.
Take it; whate'er it be, it shall be thine,
To solace thee when thou no more art mine."
Then said the Rabbi Simeon: "O ye pair!
Before ye separate, a feast prepare,
And pledge each other in the ruddy wine;
Then the feast ended, woman, unto thine
Own father's house do thou repair."

That very night the supper board was spread,
According to the law; one seated at the head,
The other at the bottom. To the brim
The woman filled the bowl and passed it to him,
And then he pledged her, and she filled again,
And he the goblet to his wife did drain.
Once more, with many wishes good and fair,
But she the generous liquor did not spare,
Until he fell into a drunken sleep,

With head upon the table, heavy and deep.
And thus concluded the farewell carouse.
So then, she took him up with gentle care
Upon her shoulder, and her husband bare,
Nodding and drowsing, to her father's house,
And laid him on the bed.

At peep of day

He started up and said: "Woman! I pray,
Tell me, where am I?"

She to him replied:

"You promised me that nought should be denied
To me of what I valued. I could find,
In all thy house, thee only to my mind,
And I have borne thee hither; now I trow
That thou art mine; I will not let thee go.
When I was thine, thou wouldst be quit of me;
Now thou art mine, and I will treasure thee!"
SABINE BARING-GOULD.,