his lips are lilies dripping liquid myrrh

The interconfessional Chichewa translation (publ. 1999) uses the ideophone noninoni in Song of Songs 5:13 to emphasize a smooth and slippery substance with a tactile and sensual component (“his lips are like lilies, dripping smooth with liquid myrrh”). (Source: Ernst Wendland)

Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)

See also my hands dripped with myrrh / my fingers with liquid myrrh.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments