David Hakohen (also haKohen or Ha-Kohen) was a late thirteenth-century
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
liturgical poet from
Avignon, who wrote from a
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
perspective in the
troubadour
A troubadour (, ; oc, trobador ) was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word ''troubadour'' is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a ''trobairi ...
esque tradition. His most published work, "Silence and Praise" (''Hishtaḥavi u-birkhi''), is in the form of a ''
muwashshah
''Muwashshah'' ( ar, موشح ' literally means " girdled" in Classical Arabic; plural ' or ' ) is the name for both an Arabic poetic form and a secular musical genre. The poetic form consists of a multi-lined strophic verse poem writt ...
'', a prelude to prayer. Ironically, the ode pledges that the prayer will be silent. It has been translated into English.
[The standard edition, in T. Carmi, ed. (1981), ''The Penguin Book of Hebrew Verse'' (New York: Viking Press), 396–97, has been partly revised in Paden and Paden, 231–32, and Ettin, 37.] It opens like this:
:Bow down, my soul, and kneel before my rock of refuge;
:Praise the Lord and bless Him!
:My lips are too low to sing his high praises.
:My years are too few to recite his glorious works.
:All my days would not suffice to tell his mighty deeds.
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:David Hakohen
Jewish poets
13th-century French Jews
13th-century French poets
Writers from Avignon