אֲדוֹן עוֹלָם (אשכנז)‏ | Adon Olam (rhyming translation by Israel Zangwill, 1901)

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription), Israel Zangwill (translation) and Shlomo ibn Gabirol

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11 June 2023 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license

Categories:

Arvit l'Shabbat, Morning Baqashot, Bedtime Shema, Musaf l'Shabbat

Tags:

rhyming translation, אדון עולם Adon Olam, 20th century C.E., פיוטים piyyutim, 57th century A.M., cosmological, 11th century C.E., 49th century A.M.

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Source (Hebrew)	Translation (English)
אֲדוֹן עוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר מָלַךְ בְּטֶֽרֶם כׇּל־יְצִיר נִבְרָא׃ לְעֵת נַֽעֲשָׂה כְּחֶפְצוֹ כֹּל אֲזַי מֶֽלֶךְ שְׁמוֹ נִקְרָא׃	Lord of the world, he reigned alone While yet the Universe was naught. When by his will all things were wrought, Then first his sovran name was known.
וְאַֽחֲרֵי כִּכְלּוֹת הַכֹּל לְבַדּוֹ יִמְלֹךְ נוֹרָא׃ וְהוּא הָיָה וְהוּא הֹוֶה וְהוּא יִֽהְיֶה בְּתִפְאֲרָה׃	And when the All shall cease to be, In dread lone splendour he shall reign. He was, he is, he shall remain In glorious eternity.
וְהוּא אֶחָד וְאֵין שֵׁנִי לְהַמְשִׁיל לוֹ לְהַחְבִּירָה׃ בְּלִי רֵאשִׁית בְּלִי תַּכְלִית וְלוֹ הָעֹז וְהַמִּשְׂרָה׃	For he is one, no second shares His nature, or his loneliness; Unending and beginningless, All strength is his, all sway he bears.
וְהוּא אֵלִי וְחַי גּֽוֹאֲלִי וְצוּר חֶבְלִי בְּיוֹם צָרָה׃ וְהוּא נִסִּי וּמָנוֹס לִי מְנָת כּוֹסִי בְּיוֹם אֶקְרָא׃	He is the living God to save, My rock while sorrow’s toils endure, My banner and my stronghold sure, The cup of life whene’er I crave.
בְּיָדוֹ אַפְקִיד רוּחִי בְּעֵת אִישַׁן וְאָעִֽירָה׃ וְעִם רוּחִי גְּוִיָּתִי אֲדֹנָי לִי וְלֹא אִירָא׃	I place my soul within his palm, Before I sleep as when I wake, And though my body I forsake, Rest in the Lord in fearless calm.

Adon Olam is a piyyut that became popular in the 15th century and is often attributed to Solomon ibn Gabirol (1021–1058) and less often to Sherira Gaon (900-1001), or his son, Hai ben Sherira Gaon (939-1038). The variation of the piyyut appearing here is the 10 line version familiar to Ashkenazi congregations. (There are also twelve, fifteen, and sixteen line variants found in Sepharadi siddurim.) The rhyming translation here by Israel Zangwill was transcribed from the Jewish Quarterly Review vol. 13 (January 1901), p. 321.

Source(s)

. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike . 4.0 . International .

“אֲדוֹן עוֹלָם (אשכנז)‏ | Adon Olam (rhyming translation by Israel Zangwill, 1901)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.

Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription)

Aharon Varady (M.A.J.Ed./JTSA Davidson) is a volunteer transcriber for the Open Siddur Project. If you find any mistakes in his transcriptions, please let him know. Shgiyot mi yavin; Ministarot naqeni שְׁגִיאוֹת מִי־יָבִין; מִנִּסְתָּרוֹת נַקֵּנִי "Who can know all one's flaws? From hidden errors, correct me" (Psalms 19:13). If you'd like to directly support his work, please consider donating via his Patreon account. (Varady also translates prayers and contributes his own original work besides serving as the primary shammes of the Open Siddur Project and its website, opensiddur.org.)

Israel Zangwill (translation)

Israel Zangwill (14 February 1864 – 1 August 1926) was a British author at the forefront of cultural Zionism during the 19th century, and was a close associate of Theodor Herzl. He later rejected the search for a Jewish homeland in Palestine and became the prime thinker behind the territorial movement.

Shlomo ibn Gabirol

Solomon ibn Gabirol (also Solomon ben Judah; Hebrew: שלמה בן יהודה אבן גבירול‎ Shlomo ben Yehuda ibn Gabirol, Arabic: أبو أيوب سليمان بن يحيى بن جبيرول‎ Abu Ayyub Sulayman bin Yahya bin Jabirul, Latin: Avicebron or Avencebrol) was an 11th-century Andalusian poet and Jewish philosopher. He published over a hundred poems, as well as works of biblical exegesis, philosophy, ethics, and satire.

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Works of related interest:

אֲדוֹן עוֹלָם (אשכנז)‏ | Adōn Olam (rhyming translation by Jessie Ethel Sampter, 1917)

adon olam (George Borrow 1843) - cropped

אֲדוֹן עוֹלָם (אשכנז)‏ | Adon Olam (rhyming translation by George Borrow, 1842)

adon olam (trans. Jacob Waley 1907) - cropped

אֲדוֹן עוֹלָם (מנהג הספרדים)‏ | Adōn Olam (rhyming translation by Jacob Waley, before 1873)

adon olam (David de Aaron de Sola 1836) - cropped

אֲדוֹן עוֹלָם (מנהג הספרדים)‏ | Adōn Olam (rhyming translation by David de Aaron de Sola, 1836)

"Observable Universe Logarithmic Illustration" by Pablo Carlos Budassi, a CC BY-SA licensed logarithmic scale conception of the observable universe with the Solar System at the center, inner and outer planets, Kuiper belt, Oort cloud, Alpha Centauri, Perseus Arm, Milky Way galaxy, Andromeda galaxy, nearby galaxies, Cosmic Web, Cosmic microwave radiation and Big Bang's invisible plasma on the edge.

אֲדוֹן עוֹלָם (מנהג הספרדים)‏ | Adōn Olam, rhyming translation by Rabbi David de Sola Pool (1937)

אֲדוֹן עוֹלָם (מנהג הספרדים)‏ | Adōn Olam, rhyming translation by Rosa Emma Salaman (1855)

אֲדוֹן עוֹלָם (אשכנז)‏ | Adōn Olam (Rabbinical Assembly & United Synagogue of America, 1946)

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." –Psalms 90:17