Good Modern Version to Complete Older Ones

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	• The Song of Songs: The World's First Great Love Poem (Modern Library Classics) Modern Library, 2006 - 272 pages average customer review:based on 9 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Good Modern Version to Complete Older Ones

I enjoyed the evocative language. I thought the authors did a good job of organizing the speech and assigning words to the most probable speakers...only in one or two places did I prefer the KJV arrangements. The commentary was very informative, although I respectfully disagree on a few points, as I tend to a more conservative Christian approach to the text. My view is that, while obviously singing the praises of human sexuality, you cannot avoid some sort of allegorical/symbolic approach to this book. While the Bible is not anti-sexuality, nor would it ideologically be against healthy portraits of sexuality in righteous contexts, the book's presence in the canon of Scripture demands us to look for a prophetical meaning in the text. The Jews have seen it as an allegory of God's love for Israel. The Church has seen it as an allegory of Christ's love for the Church. Understood rightly, it is BOTH! The Shulamite is Israel, yes, but Israel was divided between the northern kingdom and the south. The norther kingdom of Ephraim eventually was lost and assimilated to the gentile world. I can't help but see the way in which the Shulamite is described as being a portrait of Ephraim. It is as if Solomon represents the greater son of David, the Messiah, who goes out among the nations and falls in love with Ephraim of old and brings her back. It is my view that Ephraim today is represented in the gentiles who have become Christians. Consider that most of the spices used to describe her are foreign imports, and many of the geographical places used to describe her are in the north. She is dark and lovely, like the tents of Kedar. She is foreign and exotic, like a mare in Pharoahs chariots. She is contrasted with the daughters of Jerusalem, who would be the southern kingdom who stayed faithful to the house of David.

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Gorgeous book

You want to be scholarly and sexy all at once? Looking for the perfect book for an important anniversary or a gift for that intellectual you have your eye on? Look no further.
The very first verse sets the tone:
"Kiss me, make me drunk with your kisses!
Your sweet loving
Is better than wine."
In their introduction, the Blochs note that the woman's viewpoint predominates in this amazing collection of love poems. Most of the lines are hers and she is more forceful than her lover. the two of them live in an earthly paradise, thriving in nature, exulting in their youthful sexuality.
Later of course, the rabbis justified this book's inclusion in the biblical canon by pretending it was an allegory of love between God and the Jewish people or the Jewish people and the Torah. Christianity saw it as an allegory of the love between Jesus and the church or somesuch nonesense.
This translation casts aside these perversions and reclaims this wonderful celebration of human sexuality for what it is. I can't recommend it too highly.
For more on me and my book, The Nazi Hunter: A Novelgo to www.alanelsner.com.

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Fine Translation, Thin Volume

The Blochs' translation is concise, elegant, and strikes the right balance between contemporary explicitness and classical reserve. Some of the textual choices are debatable, and the translation often departs from literalness, sometimes omitting entire lines -- but the overall result is fresh and exciting; this nuanced rendition really brings the Song to life.

One thing to be aware of is that, other than the poem itself, a brief introduction, and some brief remarks by Robert Alter, the text consists mostly of very detailed translators' notes analyzing the verses line by line, even word by word. This material will be of interest to scholars of ancient Hebrew but perhaps not to the general reader. I read the book (sans notes) in about forty minutes -- and I have to wonder if I should have paid [amt] for the privelege. Nothing against the Blochs or their fine work, but I would have preferred more supporting material of more general interest.

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Profoundly Sensual

How wonderful you are, O Love,
how much sweeter
than all other pleasures!

But to try to quote from the Song is like hunting for a rabbit's foot. Or trying to cook only a spoonful of soup. The lovers are stoked with the such desperate passion, that no matter the circumstance, the politic, or the law, they bestow on themselves and, now, thanks to the translation, on us, a profound innocence. In that split moment before tears begin to well. Before pain is translated into reaction. Or desire hits the brain. No wonder the Song flaunts such a pure animal presence. The lovers living between the heartbeats. I can see the Shulamite stealthing around the city at night. Silent, almost rolling, footsteps. The lovers collision always in the softlight of dawn. The air cold.

Hurry, my love! Run away,
my gazelle, my wild stag
on the hills of cinnamon.

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DELICIOUSLY DISSAPOINTING..

In all honesty i had high hopes for this book,i was mildly disapointerd at the lack of real vision.Though true to its calling (NEW TRANSLATION)it doesnt go beyond updating the song into the language of the day.I did however like the fact that they used hebrew lettering on the opposite page of the english trans, verse by verse.I would recomend this book to one who wants to speculate,disect,and tinker with the greatest love poem ever.Could have had more pictures/illustrations for readers to visualize this visualy intensive poem.

reviews: page 1, 2

?Next to Genesis, no book in the Hebrew Bible has had a stronger influence on Western literature than the Song of Songs.?
?The New York Review of Books

One of the greatest love poems ever written, The Song of Songs celebrates the sexual awakening of a young woman and her lover and the intoxicating experience of falling in love. Composed more than two thousand years ago, this book of the Old Testament is not only an essential religious and literary text, but also a source of inspiration to modern-day poets and lovers. Enhanced by an Afterword by the esteemed scholar Robert Alter and a new Foreword from the noted translator Stephen Mitchell, this definitive volume showcases Chana Bloch and Ariel Bloch?s sensuous translation which has ?a lyrical purity that is delightful? (W. S. Merwin).

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