Translated by A. Z. Foreman - Supplication for Yom Kippur lyrics

O Lord, here before You is all my desire, Whether or not it escapes my lips. I would seek Your favor, a moment, then die If only You would grant my wish. I'd commit my spirit into Your hands, And sleep. Such a sleep would delight. Afar from You - in life I am dead, But when I cleave close - in d**h I'm alive. In faith I know not how I might draw near You, What worship to give, what words to try. Instruct me, Lord, in Your ways. With guidance Deliver me from the dungeon of lies. While yet I have strength to bear affliction Teach me and do not despise my plight, Before I become to myself but a burden, And what little I am weighs me down with time, Before I must yield against my own will And collapse as my cankered bones expire, And come to the place my forefathers came to And there by their place of rest find mine. For across the face of this earth I am foreign, While deep in her womb my true home lies. My youth till now has done what it wanted. When shall I provide for me and mine? The world of pleasures He placed in my heart Has kept me from keeping my end in mind. How can I serve my Creator, while captive To nature's lust, and servant to desire? When I know the rank worm will soon be my sister, How can I aspire to a rank on high? And how can my heart rise merry today Knowing not if a merry morrow will rise? Night upon night, and day upon day Have pledged to consume this flesh of mine. They will scatter me half to spiriting wind And return me half to dust for all time. What more can I say? I've been hunted from boyhood Through withering age by my enemy desire. What is Time to me but Your will and favor? And if not with You, then what am I? Here I stand stripped naked of any virtue, My only covering Your justice and kindness. So what use this speaking? Why plead or aspire? O Lord, here before You is all my desire.