Sonnet 21

Immanuel of Rome
Translated from the Hebrew by Yehudah Cohn

Ghost whisperer, please cast your magic spell,
conjure up psalmists – Jeduthun, Asaph.
We’ll make a bet, face off, I’ll do my stuff
with poems. They’ll admit that I excel.

Mine is the golden tongue that none can quell.
Let all request approval; I’d rebuff
unlicensed poets penning any fluff,
just throw my shoe and blow my horn and yell.

Time sought a poet singing of its toil,
put manna’s riches in my mouth – so dead
revive, slake thirsts, by pleasure’s river fed.

Redeeming poetry, Time’s favored foil
I’ll be. From that first day my rhymes were read
favor and virtue cloaked each word I said.

 

בִּי, בַּעֲלַת-הָאוֹב! בְּאוֹבוֹת קָסֳמִי

,נָא לִי, וְאָסָף עִם יְדוּתוּן הַעֲלִי

נִתְעָרְבָה יַחְדָּיו וְיִרְאוּ פָעֳלִי

.בַּשִּׁיר, וְנִתְרָאֶה וְיוֹדוּן אֶל שְׁמִי
 

? אִתִּי לְשׁוֹן זָהָב – וּמִי זֶה לוֹחֲמִי

אֶצְרַח וְאָרִיעַ וְאַשְׁלִיךְ נַעֲלִי

,עַל שָׁר אֲשֶׁר יָשִׁיר – וְאֵינוֹ שׁוֹאֲלִי

!יִמְשֹׁךְ בְּעֵט-סוֹפֵר – וְלֹא מִטַּעֲמִי
 

     בִּקֵּשׁ זְמַן אִישׁ שָׁר לְשׁוֹרֵר פָּעֳלוֹ

וַיְמַן בְּמוֹ פִי מָן, בְּדִשְׁנוֹ יִחְיוּ

.מֵתָיו, וּמִנַּחַל עֲדָנָיו יִרְוְיוּ
 

     אֶל הַזְּמַן – אָמוֹן, וְלַשִּׁיר – גֹאֲלוֹ

– אֶהְיֶה, וְשִׁירוֹתַי לְמִיּוֹם נִהְיוּ

.הַחֵן וְהַצֶּדֶק לְמַדָּם עָטְיוּ

Commentary from the Translator
This sonnet is a boastful one, which has Immanuel as a superior poet to ones mentioned in the biblical Book of Psalms, and an unrivaled talent whom others must now approach for permission to write verse. He alone is the one chosen by Time as its poet, and actually redeems poetry itself. Characteristically, for Immanuel, the original is replete with allusions to disparate biblical verses. The rhyming scheme of the Hebrew is mirrored in the translation. 

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A contemporary of Dante who wrote in both Hebrew and Italian, Immanuel of Rome lived in 14th-century Rome during the Papacy’s relocation to Avignon—a moment of relative openness that allowed Jewish cultural life to thrive. In his magnum opus Maḥbarot (מחברות), a sequence of poetic tales in prose and verse in the style of Boccaccio and Chaucer, Immanuel drew from biblical Hebrew, the Arabic maqama style, and the newly emerging Italian sonnet form. His writing is rich in allusion, playful in language, and marked by a sharp satirical streak—parodies and provocations run throughout his work.

Yehudah Cohn

Originally from London, Yehudah Cohn completed a doctorate in Hebrew and Jewish Studies at the University of Oxford after a business career trading commodities in New York. He is the author of Tangled Up in Text: Tefillin & the Ancient World and co-author of a Handbook of Jewish Literature from Late Antiquity. He was one of the translators of the Oxford Annotated Mishnah and has translated work by Israeli Nobel laureate SY Agnon.

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Mine is the Golden Tongue: The Hebrew Sonnets of Immanuel of Rome
CPL Editions
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“Among the sublime creations of world literature,” wrote the great modern Hebrew poet Shaul Tchernichovsky of the sonnets of Immanuel of Rome.

These thirty eight sonnets are found within Immanuel's Maḥbarot, making Hebrew the second language of sonnets (after Italian). The first printed edition of the larger work appeared in the late 15th century. Now these poems are available to English-speaking readers in Mine Is the Golden Tongue: The Hebrew Sonnets of Immanuel of Rome.

An English translation of all Immanuel’s Hebrew sonnets appears here for the first time, accompanied by commentary that provides literary, linguistic and historical context.

Though a foundational figure in Hebrew literature and widely studied, Immanuel of Rome has remained largely unknown outside scholarly circles. Mine Is the Golden Tongue makes his complex, subversive, and brilliant voice accessible to a broader audience.

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