אֵשֶׁת נְעוּרִים הָאֲהוּבָה | Éshet Neürim ha-Ahuvah, by Rabbeinu Elḥanan of Dampierre (rhymed translation by Israel Zangwill, 1903)

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Israel Zangwill (translation) and Yom Tov ben Yitsḥaq de Joigny

Shared on:

23 January 2026 under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication

Categories:

Tags:

20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., acrostic, Acrostic signature, phonetic alphabetic acrostic translation, Alphabetic Acrostic, English Jewry, פיוטים piyyuṭim, rhyming translation, שכינה Shekhinah

Source (Hebrew)	Rhyming translation (English)
אֵשֶׁת נְעוּרִים הָאֲהוּבָה אֲשֶׁר אֵרַשְׂתָּ בְּרֹב מֹהַר וְרֹב טוֹבָה וְאֵיךְ עַתָּה יוֹשֶׁבֶת עֲלוּבָה גְּעוּלָה וּמְאוּסָה וַעֲזוּבָה	Erst radiant the Bride adored, On whom rich wedding-gifts are poured, She weeps, sore wounded, ov’erthrown, Exiled and outcast, shunned and lone.
לְבוּשָׁהּ בַּעֲדִי עֲדָיִים אֲשֶׁר הִתְנֵיתָ בִּבְרִית וּבִתְנָאִים וְאֵיךְ עַתָּה סוֹבֶבֶת דְּלָתַיִם וְשׁוֹכֶבֶת בֵּין שְׁפַתָּיִם	Laid all aside her garments fair, The pledges of a bond divine, A wandering beggar-woman’s wear Is hers in lieu of raiment fine.
חֲבוּשָׁה בְּשֵׁשׁ וּמֶשִׁי כְּלוּלָה הִיא הָיְתָה בְּכָל הָאָרֶץ מְהֻלָּלָה וְאֵיךְ עַתָּה נֶחְשֶׁבֶת מֵחֻלָּלָה לְלַעַג וּלְבֹשֶׁת וְלִקְלָלָה	Chanted hath been in every land The beauty of her crown and zone; Now doomed, dethroned, she maketh moan, Bemocked — a byword — cursed and banned.
נְוַת פַּעֲמַיִם בִּנְעָלֶיהָ אֲשֶׁר כְּנָפֶיךָ פְּרוּשִׂים עָלֶיהָ וְאֵיךְ עַתָּה נִגְּפוּ רַגְלֶיהָ עַל הֶהָרִים אַחַר עוֹלָלֶיהָ	An airy, joyous step was hers Beneath Thy wing. But now she crawls Along and mourns her sons and errs At every step, and, worn out, falls.
נָא יוֹשֵׁב הַכְּרוּבִים תֵּרֶא בְּכָל זֹאת לֹא פָנְתָה אֶל רְהָבִים לֹא עַל פָּרָשִׁים וְלֹא עַל רוֹכְבִים כִּי עַל רַחֲמֶיךָ הָרַבִּים	And yet to Thee she clingeth tight. Vain, vain to her man’s mortal might Which in a breath to naught is hurled, Thy smile alone makes up her world.

This translation of the poem “Éshet Neürim” by Elḥanan ben Yitsḥaq of Dampierre (d. 1184) was made by Israel Zangwill and first published in his collection of poetry, Blind Children: Poems (1903), under the title, “Israel as Bride and as Beggar” on page 118. (An earlier translation in German was made by Leopold Zunz in Die synagogale Poesie des Mittelalters (1855), p. 249.)

Source(s)

Aharon N. Varady (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 (1864–1926), born in Whitechapel, London, 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

Yom Tov ben Yitsḥaq de Joigny

Yom Tov ben Yitsḥaq of York (fl. 12th c., died 1190), born in Joigny, France, was an early English-Jewish rabbi and liturgical poet. He was a student of Rabbeinu Tam. A piyyut attributed to him, "Omnam Kén" is recited in Eastern Ashkenazi synagogues each year on the evening of Yom Kippur. He was murdered in the massacre of the Jews of York in 1190.

Stable Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=65677

Associated Image:

A Judenhat escutcheon (colorized by Aharon Varady)

(This image is set to automatically show as the "featured image" in shared links on social media.)

Terms of Use: Be a mentsch (a conscientious, considerate person) and adhere to the following guidelines:

Properly attribute the work to Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Israel Zangwill (translation) and Yom Tov ben Yitsḥaq de Joigny.
Clearly indicate the date you accessed the work and in what ways, if any, you modified it. (If you have adapted the work, let us know so that the contributor might consider endorsing your revision.)
Provide the stable link to this resource: <https://opensiddur.org/?p=65677>.
Indicate that the original work was shared under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication. (To redistribute or remix this work in any format, modified or unmodified, you must refer to the terms of the license under which the work is shared.)

Additional Notes:

The views expressed in this work represent the views of their creator(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the Open Siddur Project's developers, its diverse community of volunteer contributors, or its institutional partners.
We strongly advise against printing sacred texts and art containing divine names as these copies must be regarded with reverence, complicating their casual treatment and disposal.
If you must dispose of a printed sacred text (one containing Divine Names), please locate the closest genizah (often established by a synagogue) and contact its custodians for further instructions. We also recommend using Morah Yehudis Fishman's Prayer for Adding a Work to the Genizah.

Support this work: The Open Siddur Project is a volunteer-driven, non-profit, non-commercial, non-denominational, non-prescriptive, gratis & libre Open Access archive of contemplative praxes, liturgical readings, and Jewish prayer literature (historic and contemporary, familiar and obscure) composed in every era, region, and language Jews have ever prayed. Our goal is to provide a platform for sharing open-source resources, tools, and content for individuals and communities crafting their own prayerbook (siddur). Through this we hope to empower personal autonomy, preserve customs, and foster creativity in religious culture.

ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו׃ (תהלים צ:יז) · "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)