El Arko Iris de Spinoza, and: La Burla del Filozofo

Volume 9, No.4 Summer 1991 TWO JUDEO-SPANISH POEMS Rebecca Scherer Rebecca Scherer is an independent scholar who has been a Visiting Scholar in the Judaic Studies Program at Brown University (1989/90); she is currently working on a translation of Judeo-Spanish folktales from the Balkans and Turkey and investigating the relationship between the Judeo-Spanish oral tradition and nineteenth- and early twentieth-eentury JudeoSpanish literature. El Arko Iris de Spinoza Komo kabalista Lavora para transformar en algebra El senyal de la prometa del Dyo. Mira munco en el arko. (Antes tyempo embezo ke es pekado ansi de mirarlo.) En lugar de dezir la bra1}a por el arko Melda las tavlas de logaritmo. Ma a les tres de medya noce, aun se sonya el: Se topa en medyo de una rodanza de kolores Ke se aze un aniyo de llamas llamas. Esta baylando 10 vedre kon 10 azul, La anyir kon 10 amariyo, La naranza kon 10 morado. Se aserka 10 kolorado alado de el, Flameando karmezi, kolor degrana, bermezo, I 10 yeva por la mano. El entra en el bayle. Despertandose, tambyen ve enfrente de sus ozos La rodanza de kolores, el aniyo de llamas llamas. Atorna a la matematika. Avagar las kolores se desparesen de vista Ma no se pasan de la memorya. 107 108 (Translation) Spinoza's Rainbow Like a kabbalist He labors to transform into algebra The sign of God's promise. He looks long at the rainbow. (Once he had learned that it is a sin to look thus.) Instead of saying the blessing required on seeing a rainbow, He studies the logarithm tables. But at three o'clock in the morning, even he dreams: He is in the midst of a moving circle of colors Which becomes a ring ofvivid hues. Green dances with blue, Indigo with yellow, Orange with violet. The red approaches him, Flaming crimson, scarlet, vermillion, And takes him by the hand. He enters the dance. Waking, he sees yet before his eyes The moving circle of colors, the ring ofvivid hues. He returns to his mathematics. Slowly the colors fade from sight, But not from memory. SHOFAR Volume 9, No.4 Summer 1991 La Burla del Filozofo Lakro sus kartas kon este senyal: Una ramika de konga I abaso, las palavras "Kon Prudensya" De la roza sale ... Spinoza! (Translation) Spinoza's Jest Prickly by name* as well as by nature, The philosopher sealed his letters with a pun: Beneath the admonition: "Carefully", A rose with leaves and thorny stem. *Espinosa (Spinoza) means "prickly." 109 ...