Jewish Parody and Allegory in Medieval Hebrew Poetry in Spain r 209demonstrate their own skill, virtuosity, and wit in creating distinctively
Jewish poetry in Hebrew.^2 They abandoned both writing in Arabic and
translations of Arabic works into Hebrew and fashioned their literary
discourses to reflect their contemporary milieu and to infuse them with
Jewish topics in themes, form, style, and content. These Jewish crafts-
men drew their inspiration from the Jewish literature in which they were
steeped from their great past and reflected, perhaps in hindsight, their
uncertain present and future. Their sources stemmed from all aspects
of the biblical, midrashic, and talmudic literatures that they brilliantly
wove into their secular and sacred poetry. Biblical allusions abound in
these literary creations, as they wrote in their poetry of the destruction
of their two temples, the loss of their hegemony and their land of Israel,
and the lengthy exile, as exemplified by Dūnash ben Librat’s “Sleep Not!”;^3
the promises of eventual redemption, as in Samuel ibn Nagrela’s “Wake
Up, Wake Up”;^4 the awesome wonders of God’s creation, as in Solomon
ibn Gabirol’s metaphysical treatise “Royal Crown”;^5 laudatory poems in
praise (shevah) of benefactors and friends, as in the several dedications
to different patrons, both in Arabic and Hebrew, in Judah Alharizi’s Sefer
Tahkemoni;^6 and the pleasures—and dangers—of wine, as in Samuel ibn
Nagrela’s “Wake Up, Wake Up” and Moses ibn Ezra’s “Drink Up, Enjoy.”^7
Shifting seasons and lush gardens, fading and dying but reviving once
again as winter edges into spring, were frequent themes in these poems.^8
Andalusian poets wrote of battles and wars and ultimately their distaste
of them.^9 Dicta, moralia, and philosophical musings permeate this poetry
as do “boasting” poems, a distinctive feature of both Arabic and Jewish
poetry.^10
Many of these poems formed the sacred and secular corpus of He-
brew belles-lettres. Also included in this corpus and heavily influenced by
the Arabs was love poetry, specifically “poetry of desire” (shirat hesheq).^11
Filled with lust (hesheq) and longing, eroticism and jealousy, these poems
were a direct heir of Arabic love poetry—characterized by its lavish scenes
of nature, soirées devoted to enjoying wine, indulging in flirtatious dal-
liance in the presence of male and female servants, reading poems and
improvising, playing musical instruments, and writing erotic descrip-
tions of love between male and male/female lovers, usually designated by
the Hebrew terms svi and ̔ofer, for the men and sviyya and ̔ofra for the
women. Love poetry did not always garner approval; for example, Moses
Maimonides (1138–1204) disparaged it.