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The Book of Lamentations: A Meditation and Translation
Distinguished poet and translator David R. Slavitt here provides a translation of and meditation upon the Book of Lamentations, the biblical account of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 587 B.C.,on the ninth day of the Jewish month of Av―Tish'a b'Av. (Six centuries later the Romans destroyed the second Temple on the same day.) Most of the Jewish population was deported to Babylon, and the ensuing period came to be known as the Babylonian Captivity. According to tradition, the Book of Lamentations was written in response to this political, social, and religious crisis. The five poems composing the book express Israel's sorrow, brokenness, and bewilderment before God. Tish'a b'Av is the day on which observant Jews fast and pray. And mourn. As Slavitt observes in his " It is forbidden on Tish'a b'Av even to study the Torah, except for the Book of Job and the Book of Lamentations. This is the day on which we grieve for every terrible thing that happens in this world. It is the worst day of the year."Slavitt's meditation provides a context for reading the scriptural text. Cast in the same style as the Hebrew poetry, his meditation recounts how sorrow and catastrophe have characterized so much of the history of the Jewish people, from their enslavement in Egypt to the Holocaust of Nazi Germany. Few translations of this remarkable book of the Bible attempt to reproduce in English, as Slavitt does here, the Hebrew acrostics. In the original, each verse begins with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet in sequential order; Slavitt elegantly reproduces this effect using the first 22 letters of the English alphabet. More than a structural or mnemonic device, Slavitt argues, the acrostics are "a serious assertion that the language itself is speaking, that the speech is inspired, and that there is, beyond all the disaster and pain the book recounts, an intricacy and an orderly coherence."
88 pages, Paperback
First published May 23, 2001
About the author
David R. Slavitt
147 books10 followersDavid Rytman Slavitt is an American writer, poet, and translator, the author of more than 100 books.
Slavitt has written a number of novels and numerous translations from Greek, Latin, and other languages. Slavitt wrote a number of popular novels under the pseudonym Henry Sutton, starting in the late 1960s. The Exhibitionist (1967) was a bestseller and sold over four million copies. He has also published popular novels under the names of David Benjamin, Lynn Meyer, and Henry Lazarus. His first work, a book of poems titled Suits for the Dead, was published in 1961. He worked as a writer and film critic for Newsweek from 1958 to 1965.
According to Henry S. Taylor, winner of the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, "David Slavitt is among the most accomplished living practitioners" of writing, "in both prose and verse; his poems give us a pleasurable, beautiful way of meditating on a bad time. We can't ask much more of literature, and usually we get far less." Novelist and poet James Dickey wrote, "Slavitt has such an easy, tolerant, believable relationship with the ancient world and its authors that making the change-over from that world to ours is less a leap than an enjoyable stroll. The reader feels a continual sense of gratitude."
Slavitt has written a number of novels and numerous translations from Greek, Latin, and other languages. Slavitt wrote a number of popular novels under the pseudonym Henry Sutton, starting in the late 1960s. The Exhibitionist (1967) was a bestseller and sold over four million copies. He has also published popular novels under the names of David Benjamin, Lynn Meyer, and Henry Lazarus. His first work, a book of poems titled Suits for the Dead, was published in 1961. He worked as a writer and film critic for Newsweek from 1958 to 1965.
According to Henry S. Taylor, winner of the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, "David Slavitt is among the most accomplished living practitioners" of writing, "in both prose and verse; his poems give us a pleasurable, beautiful way of meditating on a bad time. We can't ask much more of literature, and usually we get far less." Novelist and poet James Dickey wrote, "Slavitt has such an easy, tolerant, believable relationship with the ancient world and its authors that making the change-over from that world to ours is less a leap than an enjoyable stroll. The reader feels a continual sense of gratitude."
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 9, 2024
The meditations were beautiful and heart wrenching, and the translation was also poetically brilliant.
I am ashamed at what my Christian ancestors did to the Jews. It was a spit in the face of Jesus and of God.
I am ashamed at what my Christian ancestors did to the Jews. It was a spit in the face of Jesus and of God.
August 6, 2018
This was, for obvious reasons, my Sunday reading.
Slavitt's translation is brilliant because he actually does the alphabetical acrostic in English and it doesn't look like a child's second grade assignment.
The focus on finding the right word messes with the sentence structure just enough to defamiliarize and makes me focus on the content of the words. Because Slavitt so often begins with an adjective or adverb to get the acrostic right, each verse is emotionally colored in a way that draws attention not to the object, but to the experience.
The other thing that marked this translation for me was Slavitt's obvious discomfort with a God whose behavior is justified and so he often translates statements that, in Hebrew, are ambiguous in their tone, as obvious questions in English. How can God allow this to happen? Can this be justice rather than this is justice.
It's a valuable interpretive move and intersects interestingly with R. Ruti Regan's Eicha live tweets.
The meditations at the beginning were not precisely new to me, but Slavitt's use of history as poetry (which, as they say, does not repeat itself but does rhyme) was also a kind of defamiliarization with the historical events that Eicha and the kinot commemorate. It seems strange to consider that the authors of these texts didn't always think about a world where their tragedies were unknown and required context. Slavitt's meditations, with their careful citations and their open-ended questions, provide the context for the day.
Slavitt's translation is brilliant because he actually does the alphabetical acrostic in English and it doesn't look like a child's second grade assignment.
The focus on finding the right word messes with the sentence structure just enough to defamiliarize and makes me focus on the content of the words. Because Slavitt so often begins with an adjective or adverb to get the acrostic right, each verse is emotionally colored in a way that draws attention not to the object, but to the experience.
The other thing that marked this translation for me was Slavitt's obvious discomfort with a God whose behavior is justified and so he often translates statements that, in Hebrew, are ambiguous in their tone, as obvious questions in English. How can God allow this to happen? Can this be justice rather than this is justice.
It's a valuable interpretive move and intersects interestingly with R. Ruti Regan's Eicha live tweets.
The meditations at the beginning were not precisely new to me, but Slavitt's use of history as poetry (which, as they say, does not repeat itself but does rhyme) was also a kind of defamiliarization with the historical events that Eicha and the kinot commemorate. It seems strange to consider that the authors of these texts didn't always think about a world where their tragedies were unknown and required context. Slavitt's meditations, with their careful citations and their open-ended questions, provide the context for the day.
March 7, 2024
This translation is fine and tries to do justice to the acrostic style of Lamentations 1-4.
What was most moving to me was Slavitt's meditation. Jews read Lamentations on the day of Tish b'Av (9th of the month of Av, around July/August) every year. On this day, the 1st and 2nd Temple were both destroyed, the Bar Kochba revolt was squelched, and the Jews were later expelled from England and Spain in middle European history. Jewish tradition further attributes this as the day the Jews were not permitted to enter the promised land in Numbers 14.
It's informative and moving. You can read the whole work in an afternoon, but it brings fuller context to what Jews have suffered in history and gives existential weight to the reading of Lamentations on that date.
What was most moving to me was Slavitt's meditation. Jews read Lamentations on the day of Tish b'Av (9th of the month of Av, around July/August) every year. On this day, the 1st and 2nd Temple were both destroyed, the Bar Kochba revolt was squelched, and the Jews were later expelled from England and Spain in middle European history. Jewish tradition further attributes this as the day the Jews were not permitted to enter the promised land in Numbers 14.
It's informative and moving. You can read the whole work in an afternoon, but it brings fuller context to what Jews have suffered in history and gives existential weight to the reading of Lamentations on that date.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 27, 2013
An interesting and heartfelt translation--its a short book so if you want a fresh take on lament poetry, check it out. Its well worth the hour or two.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews