Moses ibn Ezra

Moses ibn Ezra was a Hebrew poet and critic of Muslim Spain, born in Granada about 1055. He belonged to a distinguished Jewish family, and after the Almoravid conquest of Granada he spent his later life in exile in Christian northern Spain, where he lamented his lost homeland and circle of friends.

He was a master of the Andalusian school of Hebrew verse, writing secular poems of wine, friendship and love as well as penitential hymns for the synagogue. His Book of Tarshish, a collection of wine poems, and his Arabic treatise on poetics are among his best-known works. These versions are by Emma Lazarus, from her 1889 Poems.