It’s a Fearful Thing to Love What Death Can Touch

Image from Pxhere

Judah Halevi was a Jewish poet, living in Spain about a thousand years ago. He left us a beautiful poem that I think captures the essence of grief. The translation has been attributed to Chaim Stern, around 1930.

 

It’s a fearful thing to love
what death can touch.

A fearful thing to love,
hope, 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 a gift to me.

To remember this brings painful joy.
It’s a human thing, love,
a holy thing,
to love
what death has touched.

For more of his poetry, click here.

To read more about grief, go here

 

 

Published by Keith R Wilson

I'm a licensed mental health counselor and certified alcohol and substance abuse counselor in private practice with more than 30 years experience. My newest book is The Road to Reconciliation: A Comprehensive Guide to Peace When Relationships Go Bad. I recently published a workbook connected to it titled, How to Make an Apology You’ll Never Have to Make Again. I also have another self help book, Constructive Conflict: Building Something Good Out of All Those Arguments. I’ve also published two novels, a satire of the mental health field: Fate’s Janitors: Mopping Up Madness at a Mental Health Clinic, and Intersections , which takes readers on a road trip with a suicidal therapist. If you prefer your reading in easily digestible bits, with or without with pictures, I have created a Twitter account @theshrinkslinks. MyFacebook page is called Keith R Wilson – Author.

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