![]() ![]() ![]() Its posts were of silver, its back was of gold, To the room of the woman who conceived me… Through streets and squares I’ll seek my love… My dove, who hides in the clefts of the rock, The voice of the dove is heard in our land, You’re beautiful, my love, you’re beautiful,Īnd I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.Īmong the young women she’s a lily among thorns. I am dark but beautiful, daughters of Jerusalem, You’ve brought me into your room, my king: This version is significantly indebted to them. Of all the works I consulted, the detailed commentary on the Hebrew provided by Ariel and Chana Bloch in their own version of the Song proved to be the most enlightening. I’ll add these at a later date for those who would like such things. I have set the movement breaks where I (and other commentators) have found them to be most appropriate these do not correspond to the traditional chapter and verse divisions. Taken as a literary work, the Song can seem haphazard, random, confusing understood as a piece of music, it makes perfect sense. I think of this piece primarily as music, with its themes and motifs which occur, transform and develop, and recur a kind of concerto in seven movements for two voices and a chorus. But I am neither Christian nor Jew, and I wanted to make a version for myself that would sing, that would appeal to me personally as a work of literature. But at the same time I have also found the lushness and eroticism of the Song hamstrung in English translations of the Bible, owing perhaps to prudishness on the part of Bible translators, or to the limitations of the obligatory chapter-and-verse format, or to zealous attempts to make the text accord with traditional exegesis. I have always been fond of the Song of Songs as a work of poetry, one of the classic texts of the Hebrew Bible. ![]()
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