In Gbaya, the notion of a large nose in Song of Songs 7:4 is emphasized with gɔ́mɔ́mɔ́, an ideophone used to describe something gigantic, grandiose. “It is an interesting ideophone for a woman, but it is used with the textual metaphor of watchtowers, for which it is fitting.”
Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. Since the subject matter of Songs of Songs is particularly conducive to the use of ideophones, there are a total of 30 ideophones in the Gbaya Bible in that short biblical book alone. (Source: Philip Noss)
The interconfessional Chichewa translation (publ. 1999) uses the ideophone see in Song of Songs 7:4 to describe the notion of long, straight, smooth, and elegant (“your neck stands tall and straight like an ivory tower”). (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)
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “ivory” in English was translated in the 1900 Kalaallisut (Greenlandic) translation (a newer version was published in 2000) as tûgânigdlo or “(narwhal) tusks.” “The word tûgâĸ (modern tuugaaq) ‘tusk’ does not refer specifically to the tusk of an elephant; rather, it is most closely associated with the noun tûgâlik (modern tuugaalik) ‘narwhal,’ which literally means ‘tusked one.’ The narwhal (Monodon monoceros) is a medium-sized whale with a single long tusk, and is native to the Arctic region, including Greenland. The use of the word tûgâĸ (modern tuugaaq) as an equivalent of ‘ivory’ has the unmistakable effect of situating the Greenlandic version in an Arctic context.” (Source: Lily Kahn & Riitta-Liisa Valijärvi in The Bible Translator 2019, p. 125ff.)
In Newari it is translated as “elephant tusks” (source: Newari Back Translation).
Both the Hebrew and Greek names are probably general terms for gazelle. At least two types of gazelle the Dorcas Gazelle Gazella dorcas and the Palestine or Arabian Gazelle Gazella arabica were found in the Middle East. They are still to be found in secluded areas.
Gazelles are small to medium sized plains antelopes, inhabiting savannah plains and semideserts. Both sexes have horns, except for the female impala, which is without horns. The horns of the gazelle species mentioned above are lyre-shaped about 25-50 centimeters (10-20 inches) in length. Gazelles are reddish brown with almost white underparts. They are long-legged and graceful and are expert jumpers. They live in small herds of up to about thirty. Females become sexually active at one year and bear young every year. This high rate of reproduction ensures their survival. They feed on both grass and the leaves of acacia and other bushes.
A breeding herd consists of one dominant breeding male and a group of females. The other males are chased from the herd when they become sexually active and they then form bachelor herds. These bachelor herds are the prime target for human and animal hunters since they provide a convenient source of meat while leaving the breeding cycle intact. In biblical times gazelles were trapped in nets or snares or were shot with bows and arrows.
The gazelle was seen as the cleanest of game animals since it met all the requirements of the Law concerning cloven hooves and cud-chewing. It was also a symbol of speed grace and beauty (the Hebrew root means beauty) and of female sexuality and fertility.
Where a language distinguishes between male and female animals, tsvi should be translated by the male form and tsviyah by the female form.
In East Africa where gazelles are well-known, a generic word for gazelles or the specific word for one of the smaller gazelles, such as the Thompson’s Gazelle Gazella thompsonii, is suitable. Elsewhere in Africa where the impala is known, the word for this antelope can be used.
Elsewhere, the word for a small antelope or deer that lives in herds can be used for the references that are literal, and the word for some swift, graceful antelope or deer can be used in the contexts where speed, grace, or beauty are being symbolized. As usual, in areas where gazelles, antelopes, and deer are unknown, a transliteration from the dominant international language or from the Hebrew original can be used. In such cases a description should be given in the glossary.
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Song of Solomon 7:4:
Kupsabiny: “Please, oh my longnecked (girl)! Your neck is straight like a pillar/post and it is smooth like a tooth of an elephant. Your eyes are like the pools of Heshbon, that are close to the gate of Bath-rabbim. Your nose is beautiful like that tall thing in Lebanon where one can see Damascus in the distance.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “Your neck is like an ivory tower, your eyes are like the pools of Heshbon near the gate of Bath-Rabbim. Your nose is like a Lebanese tower looking in the direction of Damascus.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “Your (sing.) neck (is) just like/as-if a tower which was-made from the tusks/[lit. eyeteeth] of an elephant. Your (sing.) eyes (are) just as-clear-as the bathing-place of Heshbon, by the gate of Bat Rabim. Your (sing.) nose (is) just as-beautiful-as the tower of Lebanon that faces Damascus.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “Your neck is like a tower made of ivory. Your eyes sparkle/shine like the pools in Heshbon city, near the Bath-Rabbim gate. Your nose is is as lovely as the tower of Lebanon which faces toward Damascus.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
Your neck is like an ivory tower: see comments on this phrase in 4.4. Ivory tower refers to a tower decorated with ivory (as in Psa 45.8; Amos 6.4), although it is possible that the young woman’s neck is compared to a slender ivory tusk. We can give its meaning as “Your neck is smooth like a piece of ivory.” We can also say “Your neck stands tall like a tower of ivory.” If ivory is not known we can substitute a more general expression, “Your neck is tall and straight as a beautiful tower.”
Your eyes are pools in Heshbon: a typical Hebrew wordplay is found in this verse, as eyes and pools are the same word in Hebrew. Comparison of the eyes with pools of water may also be related to the reflective quality of the pool, or of light sparkling on the surface of the water. Note that, while the first figure is a simile (with the comparison word like), here we have a strict metaphor. In many languages it may be necessary to change this into a simile as well.
Heshbon is a city in the land of Moab on the eastern side of the Jordan valley; it had once been the capital of the Amorite king Sihon. We can only guess at why Heshbon was chosen to illustrate the young woman’s eyes, since there were similar pools for water storage in almost every ancient city. It is possible that Heshbon was chosen simply because it sounds like the word “ivory” (hashen) in the previous description. We will probably have to retain the name in translation, but we will need to make it clear that “Heshbon” refers to a town.
By the gate of Bath-rabbim: we presume that the pools in Heshbon were near a gate of this name. All physical evidence of this location is now lost, but it does not affect our translation. The extended metaphor here clearly refers to the location of the pools within the city, and so it does not mean that her eyes were by the gate! Rabbim is a plural form of the word “many,” “much,” “great,” so there have been various attempts to bring out this meaning. New English Bible says “the gate of the crowded city,” while Good News Translation gives a similar though slightly repetitive phrase, “in the city of Heshbon, near the gate of that great city.” Bath has the same form as the Hebrew word “daughter,” so bath-rabbim can mean “daughter of great people,” similar to the name used for the young woman in 7.2 (“daughter of a noble”). This wordplay then is an indirect compliment. One possibility for translation is to follow Revised Standard Version, putting the proper noun in the text and then adding a footnote to indicate the possible wordplay.
Your nose is like a tower of Lebanon: the two qualities suggested by this image are “high” and “straight.” There are several references to Lebanon in these poems, in most cases referring to high mountainous areas. The definite article is attached to the Hebrew phrase, though Revised Standard Version and others render it a tower of Lebanon. This may give the impression that there were many of them and cause us to miss the point that the imagery means only to suggest height. A high or long nose is not necessarily a thing of beauty in every culture. For the Israelite a high nose was beautiful, and our translation may point that out.
The definite article attached to the word tower means that there was one particular tower in the poet’s mind, and this is further described in the extended simile as overlooking Damascus. In translation we can say “your nose is beautiful, it is high like the tower….” However, it is also possible to convey the thought by rendering the noun tower as an adjective describing the mountains of Lebanon. In this case we can say “… high like the towering mountains of Lebanon, which overlook Damascus.” Good News Translation “that stands guard” is a free and poetic rendering of the preposition translated by Revised Standard Version as overlooking. In some languages this may seem a humorous way to speak of a nose and so should probably not be used as a model.
For translation we can suggest:
• Your neck stands tall like an ivory tower.
Your eyes shine like the pools of Heshbon,
By the gate called Bath Rabbim.*
Your nose stands straight like the tower of Lebanon,
the tower facing toward Damascus.
Footnote: * Bath Rabbim is the name of the gate, but it sounds like “daughter of great ones,” a probable wordplay with “daughter of a noble” in verse 1.
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 .
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.