Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Random House (1995), Edition: 1, 253 pages
Description
HARDCOVER GIFT EDITION The Song of Songs, often referred to as the Song of Solomon, is one of the greatest love poems of all time. In their lyrical new translation, Ariel Bloch and Chana Bloch restore the sensuousness of the original language and strip away the veils of mistranslation that have obscured the power and meaning of the poem. Presented en face, this translation is scrupulously faithful to the Hebrew text.
User reviews
LibraryThing member stevenschroeder
This beautifully crafted book is a collaboration between a scholar of both classical Arabic and Hebrew and a poet who has also previously translated several volumes of Hebrew poetry. The result is an authoritative translation that allows the poetry to sing in English as it does in Hebrew. The book
Show More
begins with an accessible introduction that establishes the context and date of the poem as well as the history of its incorporation into the canon of Hebrew Scripture and its translation and interpretation in Jewish and Christian traditions. The translation and the Hebrew text are printed on facing pages, followed by Robert Alter's Afterword and an extensive commentary accessible to laypersons as well as scholars, to readers who know Hebrew as well as those who don't. Whether the Song of Songs qualifies as the world's first great love poem is a matter for debate-Sappho's poetry predates its canonical form by several centuries-but, even where its priority is in question, this new translation leaves little room for doubt as to its greatness and its passion. Show Less