The Song of Songs: A New Translation

Rating:
Summary: Spiritual & Romantic - with excellent commentary
Review: As love poetry in the midst of theology and prophecy, The Song of Songs (or "of Solomon") is an often-ignored book of scripture. This translation celebrates its important place in our faith traditions. While it is aimed for the Jewish reader, as a Christian in love I found this a moving book, and as a scholar I found the commentary useful. Thank you for showing this to me, Rebbe!

Rating:
Summary: Good Modern Version to Complete Older Ones
Review: 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.



Rating:
Summary: DELICIOUSLY DISSAPOINTING..
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Remarkable translation of "The Song of Songs"
Review: Reading "The Song of Songs" directly out of the Bible and reading the work of Ariel and Chana Block is a complete different experience. The later enriches the first! An academic approach providing a first rate translation of "The Song of Songs," an in depth study and analysis of the poem itself, will broaden your understanding and enjoyment of this forever lasting and debated love poem. Its love transcending sexual imaginary!

Rating:
Summary: Remarkable translation of "The Song of Songs"
Review: Reading "The Song of Songs" directly out of the Bible and reading the work of Ariel and Chana Block is a complete different experience. The later enriches the first! An academic approach providing a first rate translation of "The Song of Songs," an in depth study and analysis of the poem itself, will broaden your understanding and enjoyment of this forever lasting and debated love poem. Its love transcending sexual imaginary!

Rating:
Summary: Religious preconception - the enemy of divine conception
Review: Song of Songs - A New Translation by Bloch & Bloch

This is a translation and commentary which in many ways had to wait for the day in which we are living. For this is a day when the exchange of information is at an all time high. This is a day when information concerning historical and cultural context is at a maximum, but perhaps more than anything, this is a day, when the paradigms have shifted enough to make women real people, and the exploration and revelation of physical passion within the pages of the Scriptures, a real possibility.

The power of this book, both as translation, and commentary is that it is so free of religious prejudice, prudery and preconception. Religious preconception in translation always and everywhere prevents God from getting through to where people live in language and imagery that they/we can understand. In short, religious preconception is the greatest enemy of divine conception. The two authors, have done everything in their power to allow the Scripture to say what it was meant to say, say it with passion, and in a way that anyone who has ever lived and loved can understand.

So far from bringing just another pious agenda to the task, they have done all that they could to dismiss such a possibility, exploring just about every possible reason for this book's inclusion in the cannon of Scripture, except the possibility that God put it there in order to communicate a love that transcends the physical. This is to say, that the authors are so carnally minded in the highest sense of the word, that their motives are pure, and so is their translation. It finally allows the creation to do what Romans One tells us it was designed to do from the beginning, particularly in the creation of male and female.

Written necessarily from a very Jewish perspective, how else could there be such delicious understanding of the sensual aesthetics and economy of the Hebrew poetic form. Their translation finally provides us with the bedrock of passion that the New Testament tells us was written down for our instruction on whom the end of the age has come.

More than this, they have allowed us to have the foundational clues so necessary to unlock the great mystery of the Scriptures, which is that they are all about Christ, the Christ who is incomplete without His Church. At last armed with what He has truly said, perhaps we can discover what He is truly after. For surely this has been a great mystery, Christ and His Church. Now she might fully know the intention that she had in the heart of her lover on the day He said, "I love you" from the tree.

Jay Ferris - September, 2000

Rating:
Summary: Fine Translation, Thin Volume
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Love is human and divine, both
Review: This book of the Old Testament is first of all a beautiful poem. The subject is love, love for a woman and love for a man. It is the love song of two lovers.

It is never erotic or pornographic, but always poetic. That is probably why it was used over and over again by composers in vespers dedicated to the Holy Virgin, particularly the first poem : « I am black but lovely, daughters of Jerusalem » with the famous songs « Nigra sum » and « Pulchra es ».

This book has always been considered by the Catholics as an emanation of King Solomon and as prophecy about the coming of Jesus, about the Holy Virgin.

It is of course possible to see a metaphor in that lovesong, the Bride being Israel, the people of God, who have neglected their vineyard and were punished for it, who have sinned and are now repenting after the fair punishment. Then the Bridegroom is God himself.

But what remains - above and after all - is the marvellous poetic language to describe love and the loved ones. It is probably the Book that demonstrates best the fact that the Bible is speaking of real men and women and not of unreal, virtual ones. They believe in God, which gives them a higher vision and deeper meaning, but they remain human with their attachment to love, justice and peace, the three main virtues Jesus will bring us in the New Testament.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU