| Joseph Friedlander, comp. The Standard Book of Jewish Verse. 1917. | | | | As the Stars and the Sands | | By S. Frug (Trans. Joseph Jasin) |
| | | THE HILLS and the valleys are flooded with moonlight, | |
| The radiant stars, how resplendent they gleam! | |
| Before me lies open the dear, olden volume, | |
| On whose pages I ponder and dream. | |
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| I pore o’er its pages so precious and sacred, | 5 |
| When sudden there whispers a voice unto me: | |
| “I have promised, O Israel, I have sworn to make you | |
| Like the stars of the heavens, the sands of the sea!” | |
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| O Lord of Creation! what mortal dare question | |
| A single word of Thy Promise of grace? | 10 |
| Every deed Thou hast pledged Thou art mighty to do it— | |
| Each thing in its time, each part in its place. | |
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| And one thing e’en now Thou hast surely fulfilled it, | |
| Mine own eyes behold it, forbidding all doubt; | |
| We have become like the sand that is worthless, | 15 |
| Trodden and trampled and blown about. | |
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| Yes, dear Lord, as the sand the pebbles | |
| Are we scattered and strewn ’neath contemptuous feet; | |
| But the stars—how long, O Lord, ere the stars | |
| The yearning eyes with their glory shall greet? | 20 | | | |
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