pomegranate

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “pomegranate” in English was translated in the 1900 Kalaallisut (Greenlandic) translation (a newer version was published in 2000) as kingmernarssûp or “big lingonberry.” “The Greenlandic word kingmernarssûp (modern kimmernarsuup) derives from kingmernaĸ (modern kimmernaq) ‘lingonberry’ (Vaccinium vitis-idaea ). The lingonberry is the fruit of a shrub from the heath family which is native to the boreal forest and tundra in the Arctic regions of North America, Europe, and Siberia, including western and southern Greenland. The term for ‘lingonberry’ has been modified with the suffix –ssuaĸ (modern –suaq ‘big’), resulting in a descriptive term meaning ‘big lingonberry.’ (Modern Greenlandic uses the Danish loanword granatæble.)” (Source: Lily Kahn & Riitta-Liisa Valijärvi in The Bible Translator 2019, p. 125ff.)

 

The pomegranate Punica granatum has been grown from ancient times across the Middle East over to Iran and into northern India. It is widely cultivated throughout India and the drier parts of Southeast Asia, Malaya, the East Indies, and tropical Africa. Pomegranates are now found throughout the warm parts of southern Europe and across North Africa and Asia all the way to Nepal. Images of pomegranate fruits have been found in Pharaoh’s temple in Karnak, Egypt, dating from around 1480 B.C. In classical Latin the species name was malum punium (apple of Puni) or malum granatum (seedy apple). This has influenced the common name for pomegranate in many languages (for example, German Granatapfel, “seed apple”). The English word “pomegranate” itself comes from Latin pomum (fruit, apple) via Old French. The Arabic rummân (رمان) passed into some other languages, including Portuguese romã.

The pomegranate is a small tree, growing to about 3-5 meters (10-17 feet) tall, with narrow, dark green leaves and many thorny branches. It has a lovely red flower. The fruit is a bit smaller than an orange and has a hard skin, which must be cut open to get at the tightly-packed pockets of seeds inside, each seed enclosed in a little bag of juicy pulp. The end of the fruit has a distinctive flower-like shape. The hard skin, which turns from green to red as it ripens, is used as a tanning agent, for medicine, and for ink. The seeds were sometimes made into wine. Pomegranate trees live up to two hundred years.

The pomegranate was one of the seven “special” foods mentioned in Deuteronomy 8:8 that the Israelites would find in Canaan. The fruit was one of several brought back to the camp of the Israelites by the men who scouted out Canaan (Numbers 13:23). In Song of Songs 4:3 the bride of the king is said to have cheeks like halves of a pomegranate, a reference, probably, to their red color. The flower-shaped end of the pomegranate fruit made it an attractive decoration, for example on the fringe of the priests’ robes (Exodus 28:33f. and on the columns and furniture of the Temple (2 Kings 25:17).

In Jewish tradition the pomegranate stands for righteousness, because it is said to have 613 seeds, corresponding to the 613 commands of the Torah. For this reason and others many Jews eat pomegranates on the Jewish New Year Festival (Rosh Hashanah). Jewish tradition also holds that the pointed calyx of the pomegranate is the original “design” for a royal crown.
The Babylonians believed chewing pomegranate seeds before battle made them invincible. The Qur’an mentions pomegranates three times, twice as examples of the good things God creates, once as a fruit found in the Garden of Paradise.

The pomegranate is only recently being grown outside of the Mediterranean area. In West Africa it has not yet become a popular fruit. Where it is known at all, it is called rummân (from Arabic). In Song 4.3 and 6.7 the refer-ences to the pomegranate are rhetorical. There a cultural equivalent representing redness or beauty could be used. Elsewhere in the Bible transliteration is advised, following a major language. The word pome simply means “fruit,” so the basic word to transliterate from is granate (compare granada in Spanish). A possible expression is “garinada fruit.” The Latin phrase Punica granatum for pomegranate means the “grenade” of Punica (= Carthage), a city in present-day Tunisia. The Latin word granatum means “filled with many grains or seeds.” Reflecting this, Bambara of Guinea uses “karanati fruit.” One could also use the Hebrew rimmon as a base. Areas influenced by Arabic may find a word like rummân, for example, roomaanoo in Mandinka. A footnote could describe the fruit as similar to a guava, red and seedy.

Although the pomegranate has been introduced recently throughout Africa, it is not well-known, so the name will most likely need to be transliterated. As the English name is quite long, the translator is advised to translate from another source or look for ways to shorten it, such as “granata fruit.”

Pomegranate, Wikimedia Commons

Source: Each According to its Kind: Plants and Trees in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

complete verse (Song of Solomon 4:3)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Song of Solomon 4:3:

  • Kupsabiny: “Your mouth is so very beautiful!
    The upper and lower parts (lips) are like a red string/rope.
    The cheeks are healthy looking that that cloth is covering,
    like two round stones.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Your lips are like a red ribbon.
    Your mouth is very beautiful.
    Your cheeks behind your
    veil are like the halves of a pomegranate.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Your (sing.) lips (are) just like a red ribbon. How beautiful these (are). Your (sing.) face which is-covered with a veil (is) just like reddish pomegranate fruit.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Your lips are like a scarlet ribbon,
    and your mouth is lovely.
    Beneath your veil,
    your round, rosy/red cheeks are like the halves of a pomegranate.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Song of Songs 4:3

Your lips are like a scarlet thread: in describing the young woman’s lips, we may ask where the emphasis lies. Is it on the redness of the lips? Or are they apparently thin like thread? In the previous examples it is the color that is the center of attention, not the objects themselves. Applying that principle here we conclude that it is the redness of her lips that is in focus, not how thin they are. Scarlet is a bright red color. Whether she has painted her lips or whether they are naturally red is not known. In some cultures red lips may not be a particular sign of beauty. If this is the case we can qualify the word to make the point: “Your lips are as lovely as a scarlet thread.” Thread can refer to a strip of cloth or ribbon, not only to fine thread. If the figure of thread or “ribbon” is not meaningful, then this image can be omitted: “Your lips are a lovely red.”

Your mouth is lovely: we move from a particular part of the mouth (lips) and a particular color (scarlet) to the more general terms mouth and lovely. The Hebrew phrase translated in Revised Standard Version as mouth (literally “from your words”) occurs only here but comes from a common root for “speak.” For this reason some versions emphasize the woman’s speech rather than her mouth (Good News Translation “when you speak,” King James Version “your speech,” New English Bible and Jerusalem Bible “your words”). In the context of the wasf, however, it is probably correct to treat the word as mouth rather than the more abstract “your speech,” because the focus throughout this passage is on the physical attributes of the young woman.

For lovely see comments on “comely” in 1.5, 10 There is a significant wordplay here. The Hebrew word for mouth can also mean “desert,” while the word for lovely can mean “an inhabited area.” Throughout the poem the woman’s lips are seen as a place of refreshment. Thus there is a possible double meaning, with the young man comparing his lover to an oasis in the middle of a desert. Again this kind of double meaning will be impossible to convey, unless it is included in a footnote.

For translation we suggest:

• Your lips are like a scarlet ribbon,
And your mouth, so beautiful.

It is possible that in some languages it would be too repetitive to speak of both the lips and the mouth. If this is the case another alternative will have to be found:

• Your mouth is red like scarlet thread
And, oh, so very beautiful!

Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate: scholars disagree about how to translate the Hebrew word rendered as cheeks. The term actually describes the thin part of the skull, the “temple” (see Judges 4.21; 5.26). King James Version follows this sense. New English Bible “your parted lips” is far from the original, we believe, and should not be followed. However, since most of the young woman’s temple would be hidden either by her hair or her veil, and in view of the comparison with the pomegranate, it seems that cheeks is a reasonable translation.

Like halves of a pomegranate: the pomegranate is a thick-skinned fruit that grows on a shrub-like tree. The comparison here raises the question as to which part of the fruit is in the young man’s mind as he describes his beloved. The exterior of the fruit is red, so he may be referring to her “red cheeks.” If it is the interior of the fruit, as some suggest, then it brings to mind an image of blotchy and unclear skin, which is quite unattractive. Thus we disagree with the translation “slice” for Revised Standard Version halves. The more likely point of comparison is with the rounded and rosy exterior of the fruit. In many cultures around the world, rosy or full cheeks are a sign of health and beauty. Where pomegranate is not known we may perhaps refer to a “red apple” or simply say “your full rosy cheeks.” This is better than Good News Translation “your cheeks glow.”

Behind your veil: see comments on verse 1. If the veil covered the lower half of the face, then the young woman’s cheeks were not fully exposed.

For translation we can say “Beneath your veil your cheeks are rosy like a pomegranate.” However, in view of preferences shown by other translations, it may be necessary to add a footnote drawing the readers’ attention to the problem in the interpretation.

Though it may not be so obvious in the Revised Standard Version translation, the Hebrew lines are well balanced and show grammatically parallel clauses:
Like a ribbon of scarlet,
your lips

• and from your mouth so lovely
Like a half pomegranate,
your cheeks

• and from behind your veil

The translator may be able to follow the Hebrew parallelism, thus preserving the literary flavor of the original.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Zogbo, Lynell. A Handbook on the Book of Song of Songs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1998. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

SIL Translator’s Notes on Song of Songs 4:3

4:3a

Your lips are like a scarlet ribbon: Here the author compares the woman’s lips to a scarlet ribbon. The word scarlet refers to a bright red color. In ancient Palestine red lips were considered beautiful, so the woman probably put something on her lips to make them a bright red color.

In some cultures people do not consider red lips to be beautiful, or red lips may imply something bad about a woman. If that is true in your language, you may translate in a more general way. For example:

Your lips are a glorious color.
-or-
Your lips are beautiful.
-or-
Your lips shine.

scarlet thread: scarlet ribbon: The phrase scarlet ribbon probably emphasizes the color scarlet, which is bright red. The phrase does not imply that the woman’s lips were thin like some ribbon may be. In your translation you may need to compare her lips to something thick. For example:

Your lips are as ⌊beautiful as⌋ fine scarlet cord