Wonderful Translation!

books:


	• The Song of Songs: Love Lyrics from the Bible (Brandeis Series on Jewish Women) Marcia Falk Brandeis, 2004 - 113 pages average customer review:based on 4 reviews view larger image
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Wonderful Translation!

How lucky we are to have Marcia Falk's wonderful translation of the Song of Songs back in print. This is undoubtedly the best---and the most literary---English translation available. The Song of Songs, the only book of love poetry in the Bible, is remarkable for its poetic beauty and for its nonsexist presentation of sexual love. Marcia Falk does a marvelous job of rendering the ancient Hebrew text into lyrical and evocative English poems. Falk's inspired translation is based on her groundbreaking scholarship. It's fascinating for anyone with a scholarly interest in the text, and exciting for anyone who loves good poetry. The book is also physically gorgeous, illustrated with beautiful, sensual drawings by the artist Barry Moser.

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Gorgeous and sensual

Go into any version of the Christian Bible and find a tepid, shrivelled, boring and severely edited translation. Is the 'Song of Songs' a little too explicit for religions where women are dismissed as evil temptresses? Hm, I wonder. Look at the 'Tanakh', and we are closer to the truth. But read Marcia Falk and feel the original Hebrew's luscious bloom of sexual longing and fulfillment. Dangerous stuff, this, if one is socially conservative or easily shocked. Never pornographic, it is the unmistakeable imagery, the symbolism, that makes this 'Song of Songs' infinitely rewarding literature. Here, men and women are equal manifestations of God's presence on earth; when unified on every level of being, divinity is attainable and fully realized. We are closer to God.

The early Christian Church certainly found female sexual expression repugnant; although I am not a male bashing feminist, I can see how such power could be intimidating within a hierarchical, male dominated political organism. I can only suppose the offending, offensive passages were removed and sterilized. In modern Jewish expression, sensuality is tempered by marriage symbolism (as mentioned above): human beings are married to God, and share their most intimate relationship with the Godhead.

Regardless of how one imbues these passages with meaning, this is a lovely translation. I particularly enjoy the inclusion of the original Hebrew. With dictionary in hand and Marcia Falk's translation, my understanding is wonderfully deepened.

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a beautiful book

A beautiful re-translation. Close your Bible, pick up this book, and read it with someone you love.

Thank God it's back!

For years I have been wanting to find this book again, after my own copy from the original printing was lost in a move. I was even tempted to steal a copy from the library, but since it is a scripture from the Bible, that seemed unwise. Marcia Falk's translation of this Song of Songs is uniquely beautiful, and I am overjoyed that it has returned to print!

Striking in its appeal to the senses, the Song of Songs--the Bible's only book of love poems--is remarkable for its lack of sexual stereotyping and its expression of mutuality in relationships between men and women. Marcia Falk's rich and lyrical translation, praised by poets and scholars alike, is paired here with the original Hebrew text.

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