'Tis a fearful thing to love what death can touch
- fiorella
- Nov 2, 2020
- 1 min read
Updated: May 7, 2023
Reflecting on a thousand-year-old poem.
Isn't it, though?
Is there anything else that leaves us as vulnerable?
And yet we do it repeatedly—mostly altruistically—so consistently that words written almost one thousand years ago come to life anew each time they're read:
‘Tis a fearful thing
to love what death can touch.
A fearful thing
to love, to hope, to dream, to be –
to be,
And oh, to lose.
A thing for fools, this,
And a holy thing,
a holy thing
to love.
For your life has lived in me,
your laugh once lifted me,
your word was gift to me.
To remember this brings painful joy.
‘Tis a human thing, love,
a holy thing, to love
what death has touched.
— Yehuda Halevi
I wish I could say I found this poem while delving into classic literature but in truth, I was watching Netflix. In the last episode of a fun Western miniseries called Godless, a pastor recites this poem at a funeral. I was so moved by it that I had to look it up.
"Tis a Fearful Thing" was written by Yehuda Halevi, a Jewish physician, poet, and philosopher. He was born in Spain almost one thousand years ago never imagining his words would resonate a thousand years later in times so full of love and loss as these.
But that's the thing about words, they live on.
And the thing about love? It makes us human.
Shelby
I just watched the series Godless. I was profoundly moved by what seemed to be a random statement by the pastor. My mother died a year ago, and loving my mother was not a choice, but it was like gravity. It was always there, exercising its influence, and I was unaware until she was gone. Your reflections and journey to discover the poems origin was incredibly eloquent. Further, your art speaks the language of an adventurous and passionate soul.
Ken
Hello, I love your thoughts about this poem. I need to correct, though, that this is not Yehudah HaLevi (who only wrote in Hebrew and nothing this modern-sounding). This is the work of 20th Century Rabbi Chaim Stern, who was a brilliant liturgist and one of the authors of the Gates of Prayer prayerbook of the Reform Jewish movement. At some point someone on the internet misattributed it to Yehudah HaLevi and it caught on (because the poem is gorgeous) and it went everywhere with this misattribution. So please, keep spreading this gorgeous poem around, crediting Rabbi Stern. And do check out some of Yehudah HaLevi's actual work – particularly his poems about travels at Sea, which are really cool.…