David Goldstein (1) (1933–1987)

I was vaguely aware of the existence of the Jewish poetry in medieval Spain, but I had not really experienced it until I read this. The introduction is informative on how the poetry developed --I had not realized it was written by Jews whose everyday language was Arabic but who adapted Arabic poetic forms to writing poetry in Hebrew. The book being an anthology, naturally individual poems by individual writers vary in quality, but some of the best --for me, some of Samuel ha-Nagid's poems like "On the Death of His Brother" and "The Citadel" are as good as any poetry I have ever read, and some of Samuel ben Gabriol and Abraham ben Ezra (especially his witty "Luckless") are very good.… (more)