The First Crusade (1096)24
Yea, they slay us and they smite,
Vex our souls with sore affright;
All the closer cleave we, Lord,
To Thine everlasting word.
Not a word of all their Mass
Shall our lips in homage pass;
Though they curse, and bind, and kill,
The living God is with us still.
We still are Thine, though limbs are torn;
Better death than life forsworn.
Noblest matrons seek for death,
Rob their children of their breath;
Fathers, in their fiery zeal,
Slay their sons with murderous steel,
And in heat of holiest strife,
For love of Thee, spare not their life.
The fair and young lie down to die
In witness of Thy Unity;
From dying lips the accents swell,
‘Thy God is One, O Israel’;
And bridegroom answers unto bride,
‘The Lord is God, and none beside’,
And, knit with bonds of holiest faith,
They pass to endless life through death.
KALONYMOS BEN YEHUDAH.
(Trans. E. H. Plumptre.)