On the final day of the summer term at my Ayrshire school, the rector used to read from chapter twelve of Ecclesiastes at morning assembly. Sheer poetry!
Now a fascinating new volume, Poets of the Bible, edited and translated from Hebrew and Greek by Willis Barnstone of Indiana University (W. W. Norton and Company, New York, £26.99), offers major biblical poems from the Old and New Testaments, from Genesis to Revelations, in contemporary English.
Here is an extract from the Ecclesiastes text – with familiar imagery, though lacking the great sonorities of the Authorised Version and that apt quip for holiday time - “Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.”
THE GOLDEN BOWL BE BROKEN
Remember your creator when you are young
Before the bad days. They arrive and you say,
“I find no pleasure in them, before the sun and moon
And stars are shadow, and clouds come after rain.”
When your watchman is shaky and strong men
Are bent, women who grind are few and idle.
The doors on the street are closed. The noise
From the mill low. Birdsong wakes you
But these daughters of song are weak.
You become afraid of high places
And there is terror on the road.
The almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper
Drags rather than hop. Capers fall apart
And desire fails. A man leaves for his eternal
House and his mourners mill the streets.
Before the silver cord snaps and golden bowl
Is smashed, the pitcher broken against the well,
And the wheel is broken at the cistern,
And dust returns ground to how it was
And a lifespan returns to God who gave it,
Utter vanity, says Koheleth, sheer futility!
NB: Koheleth is the preacher in the Authorised Version
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article