A poem on how to play chess, one of the oldest historical descriptions of the game of Chess, by Avraham ibn Ezra (12th century)

The text of Yehudah haLevi’s piyyut, “Al Ahavatekha Eshteh Gəvi’i,” with a German translation by Franz Rosenzweig.

A rhyming English translation of the piyyut Adonai Negdekha kol Ta’avati.

“Servant of God” is an adapted English rhmying translation by Alice Montefiore Lucas of a piyyut by Yehudah haLevi, first published in the former’s first collection of translations Songs of Zion by Hebrew Singers of Mediæval Times (1894), pp. 9-12.

Emma Lazarus’s translation, “In the Night” — derived from the piyyut נַפְשִׁי אִוִּיתִיךָ בַּלַּיְלָה by Moses ibn Ezra — was first published in her anthology, Songs of a Semite: The dance to death and other poems (1882), pages 78-80.

This prayer for divine contemplatives, beginning with the incipit “Tefilat Lisgulat Ishim” (prayer for distinguished individuals), is attested in several manuscripts prefaced by the title, תפלת הרב רבינו משה זצ״ל (prayer of our teacher, Rabbi Mosheh, may their righteousness be remembered for a blessing). The assumption of earlier scholars was that the Rabbi Mosheh here refers to Rabbi Mosheh ben Maimon — Maimonides (1138-1204). While our reading of the prayer finds nothing outside the concepts articulated by Rambam in his Mishneh Torah (Yesodei haTorah) and Moreh Nevukhim, it seems more likely that the Rabbi Mosheh referred to here is the famous paytan Mosheh ben Yaaqov ibn Ezra (ca. 1055-after 1138), who is quoted sharing similar ideas as found in this prayer by Rabbi Abraham ben Azriel in Arugat ha-Bosem (ca. 1230). Transcribed from the manuscript Leiden Or. 4779, this is the first time this obscure and long overlooked prayer has been translated.

An adaptation in rhymed English verse of an excerpt of Shlomo ibn Gabirol’s Keter Malkhut Elsie Davis. First published in The Jewish Quarterly Review, Vol. 7, No. 3 (April 1895), pp. 461-464. The adaptation begins with section 34 of the piyyut.

Emma Lazarus’s translation, simply referred to as “Hymn” — derived from the piyyut יְיָ מָה אָדָם by Shlomo ibn Gabirol — was first published in her anthology, Songs of a Semite: The dance to death and other poems (1882), pages 68-70.

The reshut for praying at dawn, in Hebrew with English translation.

“Prayer” for Sabbath—ⅩⅬⅢ is Alice Lucas’s English verse adaptation of the piyyut “Shaḥar Avaqeshkha Tsuri u-Misgabi” by Shlomo ibn Gabirol, published in her The Jewish Year: A Collection of Devotional Poems for Sabbaths and Holidays throughout the Year (1898), page 97.

The reshut for praying at dawn, in Hebrew with English translation.

This Chinese translation of an Ashkenazi nusaḥ for the piyyut “Adon Olam,” is found on page 73 of the liner notes for the Chinese edition of Richard Collis’s album We Sing We Stay Together: Shabbat Morning Service Prayers (Wǒmen gēchàng, wǒmen xiāngjù — Ānxírì chén dǎo qídǎo).

Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi’s interpretive “praying translation” of the piyyut, Adon Olam.

The cosmological piyyut, Adon Olam, in its Ashkenazi variation in Hebrew with an English translation.

This is Rabbi Dr. David Prato’s Italian translation of Adon Olam from his bilingual Hebrew-Italian everyday siddur, Tefilah l’David: Preghiere di Rito Italiano (1949), p. 272-275.

The cosmological piyyut, Adon Olam, in its Ashkenazi variation in Hebrew with an English translation.

This is Artur Carlos de Barros Bastos’s Portuguese translation of Adon Olam from his prayer-pamphlet, Oração Matinal de Shabbath (1939), p. 52-53. I have set the translation side-by-side with the Hebrew text from which it was derived.

A rhyming translation in English to the popular piyyut, Adon Olam.

Rabbi Dr. Mojżesz Schorr’s translation of Adon Olam in Polish was first printed on pages 8-9 of Modlitewnik na wszystkie dni w roku oraz modlitwę za Rzeczpospolitą ułożoną przez prof. Schorra (1936).

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 Jessie Ethel Sampter was transcribed from Joseph Friedlander and George Alexander Kohut’s The standard book of Jewish verse (1917), p. 394.