The Convergence of Judaism and Islam. Religious, Scientific, and Cultural Dimensions

Jewish Parody and Allegory in Medieval Hebrew Poetry in Spain r 217

If only my bonds could be loosened.

Then revenge will be my way.

(ll. 166–67).

With an air of bravado (ll. 175–82), he challenges his captor (and the lat-
ter’s imaginary forces) to a duel, as one would expect a chivalrous knight
to do. He boasts of his bravery, which he imbibed with his mother’s milk,
flaunting his ability to pulverize them mercilessly because he is not like
every lover (hosheq), weakened by desire. Before the challenge can be
taken up, a newcomer appears on the scene, also on horseback, ranting
and armed with a flaming spear. It is none other than Yefefia, his first
love, who has discovered that Yoshefe is missing; she pursues him, also in
male disguise, roaring like a lioness bereft of her cubs. Yefefia and Yemima
tussle, noisily and lustily, amid dust and howls (ll. 183–99), swords ablaze,
their appearances disguised by their helmets, and argue about their love
for Yoshefe, whom Yefefia calls her “playmate” (yedid sha ̔ashu ̔ay, l. 237).
The reader can almost savor their aggressive altercation:

They fought a mighty battle.

One dives, the other thrives.

One shrieks, the other screams.

One chases, the other trails.

One trips, the other draws.

One on the right, one on the left.

One taunts, one flaunts.

(ll. 193–96)

And so on. Yemima strikes down Yefefia, and Yoshefe comes to her res-
cue, quaking, frightened (l. 191) to see deadly scorpions and snakes upon
her head (ll. 218–27). Her breasts are firm like apples, and he is suffused
with pain when he lands on them, thinking they were actual spears! Typi-
cally, in medieval poetry, female body parts are compared to weapons of
war, and raven black locks are also understood metaphorically, prepared
by the pursued seductress as a feigned deterrent during battle.^39 The lov-
er’s (hashuqa) beauty, white of skin and (blood) red of face, both beckons
and repels.