Letter from “The Translator” to Isaac Leeser;May 24, 1864 · Isaac Leeser Digital Repository · Legacy Projects from Judaica DH at Penn Libraries

Title

Letter from “The Translator” to Isaac Leeser;May 24, 1864

Author

“The Translator”

Contributor

Isaac Leeser

Date Created

24 May 1864

Location(s)

Baltimore

Philadelphia

Format

Letter. 2 page(s) on 2 sheet(s).

Legal

Type

Letter

Language(s)

English

Has Format

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p3fx74j6q/manifest.json

Link to Colenda

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3fx74j6q

Physical Characteristics

Manuscript

Is Part Of

The Dropsie College Isaac Leeser Collection at the Penn Libraries

content

Baltimore, May 24th 64
Dr Sir,
I enclose an English paraphrase of the Hebrew Enigma in yr last Occident, and if you think it worthy of insertion in the next number, it is at your service. I hope to see you, as usual, when you visit Balto. when by shewing you a literal copy you will at once identify the writer as
Your friend
The Translator.
Rev. Isaac Leeser
Philada.

The beginning & end of the mightiest Heroes
The world ever boasted, on land or on sea,
I was ere Creation & was not created,
Enclosed in the tomb, yet not ceasing to be.

Nor yet shall I cease when time's record is ended,
And the nations of earth have to chaos returned:
Man's hand could not keep me united or blended,
And on me the eye of the Lord hath not burned.

Yet in Heaven & earth I am recognized wholly,
And dwell with the dead & the living around.
Associate of wisdom & foe to all folly,
In the seat of the scorners I could not be found.

No form or resemblance of form doth surround me,
No body corporeal or subject to death,
Not formed from the clay, nor has earth ever bound me;
No spirit, no soul, & no animate breath.

If knowledge delights thee & wisdom's way only,
Say what is my name, & my dwelling declare.
Depart to the wilderness arid & lonely,
And seek me in deserts all blighted & bare.

For only in solitudes wasted & dreary,
Removed from the present & dead to the past,
There's quiet from trouble & rest for the weary,
And stillness before thee, & silence at last.

Identifier

LSDCBx9FF16_18

Date

1864-05-24