Ha ha ha ha ha!

ON THE DEATH OF THE PATRIARCH JOHN BAR-MA DANi'
He was created Maphrian A.D. 1232, and Patriarch in 1252
and he died in 1263.,
BY GREGORY BAR-HEBR^US.
O Angel of Death, why hast thou smitten me with
such sorrow as this,
And hast pitilessly rewarded me with such evil as this.
The sun of time, the luminary, the prop of the Church,
The head of the soul, the soul of the spirit, the right 120
spirit,
The fruit of the heart, the life of life, the light of the
pupil of the eye,
The holy of holies, the pure in feelings, the new spirit,
Hast thou taken away from us; and our lament is one
of mourning.
Thou hast cast our crown to earth, thou hast overturned
our exalted horn.
125 Under thy protection it became springtime for us throughout
the year.
And even winter took upon itself the attribute of summer.
In the time of December as in the time of January
We possessed a rose without any hateful thing and
grapes on the vine.
No man among us ever drew nigh to the fig-tree
130 Without seeing it to be full of fruit, yea, richly dowered
therewith.
garden was like unto the Garden of Eden,
And, behold, without our father, it is like unto the
bottommost hell.
O father of truth, let all life perish except thy life,
And if I forget thee, let this my beloved right hand
forget me.
135 Through thy removal, behold, the Church hath become
filled with grief,
And through the want of the perfection which belongeth
to thee it hath become a defective thing.
That which belonged to thyself alone hath become a
strange form,
And to thee alone hath come the manhood of our Lord.
Tell me, O our father, where thy blessed habitation is,
HO And how the eye which hath become infirm can see
thee.
Though there fall to me the fiercest path of fire,
Yet I will travel on the top thereof, even though it blaze
with flame.
The pure soul which was in thy body hath become
perfect,
And it hath straightway become mingled with the phalanxes
of the Watchers and of the spiritually wise;
Above the fiery coals among the wheels set 145
thy footstep.
If thou couldst permit me to see the divine Shechinah,
The eye of the soul which though now it were bashful,
Yet at the sight of thy shadow would it become luminous.
This despised form would be unworthy to
see thee,
Therefore hath thy Lord made for thee a house in the 150
heavens,
hi all the world my soul hath become a wretched and
apostate thing,
And thyself alone in all the world wast its friend.
Why didst thou leave it in despair and solitude.
Why didst thou not take it with thee as a handmaiden
or as a servant?
Since it never at any time spared itself in service, 155
Why didst thou leave it in tears behind thee like a
rejected thing?
From the time when it came into being it never heard
the voice of weeping,
But through thy departure it hath become skilled in the
arts of grief
What one who mourneth for a lover or for a mistress,
Payeth heed to the voice of him that draweth nigh 160
with speech of consolation?
Though thinking to give comfort to others like the
tragedian.
Its own habitation is far removed from consolation.
In the dreams of the night when rational soul is
empty,
It becometh painted with shapes of vanity in thy form,
165 For thou knowest that that which was sweet hath become
most bitter.
And what ill luck hath come upon the soul that was
thine handmaiden, O mistress!
From the time when became certain to thee the intention
of departure
It became empty and destitute of both knowledge and
understanding.
In the treasury of the mind blazing fire halh been piled up,
170 Which overcometh with fierce flame and burning the
Babylonish woman.
With the dew of life of thine anorelic shadow
Unless thou sprinkle her behold she will be burnt up
like the Chaldean woman.
Her liver hath become to her a well—like the Israelitish
woman
And in it is preserved the unquenchable fire of thy love.
175 In two mighty fire-temples it hath become a dweller.
And within a very little it had worshipped the fire:
like a Persian.
In the heart and liver, which are the houses of life,
the fire kindleth.
And into them entereth the Magian prophetess to prophesy.
Inasmuch as her body is enfeebled and her mind
wandereth,
180 If she erreth in her speech let her not be blamed.
My heart hath no peace and quietness, and my mind
getteth no rest,
And without thy likeness there will never remain perception
in my brain.
leep by day and by night is washed with tears,
And for this reason a sleepless eye hath come to me.
If an unwatchful eye hath ever been seen, 185
It would fix itself to see thee; and if  did not no
man would see it sunk in slumber.
For at thy gate soul standeth like a beggar,
Asking a vision of thyself in a dream and not a cake.