A Wish, a poem by Rosa Emma Salaman (1853)

Source Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=43041

Date: 2022-03-02

Last Updated: 2025-02-18

Categories: Dying

Tags: 19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., English Romanticism, English vernacular prayer, Prayers as poems

Excerpt: "A Wish" by Rosa Emma Collins née Salaman was published in her bound collections of poetry, Poems (1853), pp. 66-68. . . .

Content:

Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	A Wish.
	When thoughts of pleasure or of pain With which our life’s o’ercast, When these by turns my heart enchain, Whiche’er I dwelt on last,— If pleasure, then I think how short, How transient will this be! If pain—oh! that is always fraught With more than pain to me!
	On earth, our spirits cannot drink Ecstatic joy for long; And thus it is I often think, Till thinking turns to song.
	Oh! when will my soul depart? When will the hour come For the spirit to quit its abode And be called to its native home? Impatient soul, be still, And wait God’s holy will.
	Oh! when will my body die? When will it ever rest? Oh! ini the grave let it lie, That the spirit may then be blest! Impatient soul, be still, And wait God’s holy will.
	I long to leave the earth, I long to see the sky; For never will light shine through The soul, till the body die. Impatient soul, be still, And wait God’s holy will.
	Thrice has the voice said “wait;” And shall I then dispute? Nay, rather let this heart, These lips, be ever mute, Than I opposing still My wish to His good will. Then wait, my soul, oh! wait, Until it please the Lord To take thee to that state Eternal, blest, adored.

---

“A Wish” by Rosa Emma Collins née Salaman was published in her bound collections of poetry, Poems (1853), pp. 66-68.

Source(s)

 

Contributor: Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Co-authors:

• 
  Name: Rosa Emma Salaman
  Bio: Rosa Emma Collins née Salaman (1815-1898), was a poet and translator of Hebrew and German. Poems, published in 1853, was reportedly the only book accepted by Queen Victoria in the year of mourning following Prince Albert's death in 1861. In the United States, her poetry appeared in Isaac Leeser's Occident and American Jewish Advocate. The daughter of Simeon Kensington Salaman (b.1789) and Alice Cowan, Rosa Emma was one of fourteen siblings in a large and literary Jewish family in London, part of the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish community. Two sisters, Kate Salaman and Julia Goodman, were painters -- the former of miniatures and the latter, a prolific portraitist. Her brother, Charles Kensington Salaman, was a British composer and pianist. Her husband, Judah Julius Collins, was a warden of the Western Marble Arch Synagogue in London's West End, and purported to be a descendant of the Baal Shem of London. Their son, Edwin Collins, was a Jewish educator.
  Website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_Emma_Salaman
  Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/rosa-emma-salaman
• 
  Name: Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
  Bio: 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.)
  Website: https://aharon.varady.net
  Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/aharon-varady-transcription

Featured Image:

Title: A Wish (Rosa Emma Salaman 1853) – cropped
Caption: A Wish (Rosa Emma Salaman 1853) - cropped