Pronged Nest, Hut of Ivory, Seashells Short Essay on Song of Songs, 5:14 -- By Payman Akhlaghi (Draft 1) -- מעיו עשת שן, מעלפת ספירים. -שיר השירים, פרק ה Those were among the few words that kept me up last night. I save you the journey. Here is the sensible JPS, translation: ...his body is as polished ivory overlaid with sapphires.[1] Clearly, I am not satisfied. So heres my interim conclusion: The common translation of מעי as guts, intestine, etc. would be misleading. She is not likely interested in describing her beloveds belly, as in what is inside it. But body also wouldnt do justice; it is too general for this passage, as heads and limbs are each described separately. To me, torso, upper-body, would be better. Here, I would go with chest to include the rib cage, and likely the abdominal muscles, i.e. the abs, for reasons that may become clearer below. Remember, her beloved seems to be a rather athletic figure. That was easy. The problem is the compound עשת שן. I am not satisfied with polished ivory, even if I read the Hebrew as eSSet shen -- cut and worked tooth -- instead of the accepted eSHet shen. Rather, I take it as an eshet of, or made of, shen; and Ill try to deal with it as such. I take shen as tooth, claw, cog, prong, jaw, all accepted senses.[2,3] The problem would be eshet; for which I eventually resort to the Arabic عش and عشة, translated as nest and hut, respectively. His chest -- torso, upper body -- is like a nest made of prongs, a hut made of teeth, or with compromise, a house made of ivory. In short, it is the very image of his rib cage, emphasized for its bony ridges -- meoolefet, overlaid with, covered with, sapphires. So far, thus, we have ...his chest is a pronged nest, or equally acceptable to me, a hut made of tusks,, hence, an ivory house, that is covered in sapphires. Casing would do; but its too limiting for her line of description. Nest is more imaginative; it also goes with the image of his eyes as doves presented earlier. Hut and house could do well, too, as it would stand on two pillars of marble founded on gold. Note that jaw would ironically fit the bill perfectly and literally; but its a bit too coarse for what I take as the intent of the passage. If so, step back and see how his description is coming together beautifully as a house, or a castle. I dare to imagine, however, an alternate if far-fetched interpretation. First, I play on sappirim, plural of sappir, commonly taken as sapphire, the blue gemstone. I doubt if it was never misplaced, if not confused, in Hebrew with the other Greek word, sphere, despite their apparently different origins.[4] Thence, I doubt if sappir was never used for pearl. Reading meooleft (the object-noun/adjective of עלף, related to the Arabic غلف; enwrap, shield) as meOlefet (subject-noun/adjective of the root), and taking tooth as both look and material from which the nest is made, I arrive at the following: a seashell inside of which pearls (spherical gems) are normally wrapped. ...meAv eshet shen, meOlefet sappirim. ...his torso a seashell that shields the pearls. I further offer a third compromise of the above versions: ...his chest is like a cage of tusks that has encased sapphires. Needless to say, overlaid with sapphires is still available. [1] breslov/bible/Song_of_Songs5.htm#5 . [2] translate.google , as an online dictionary. [3] morfix.co.il , an online dictionary. [4,5] oxforddictionaries/ for the etymology. The corroborating etymology offered by Googles define command, is perhaps based on the same source. © 2014, Payman Akhlaghi. All rights reserved.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 01:01:47 +0000
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