> > Why snub it!... Allow me to hazard a guess; the content of the poem is either too personal? Too emotionally risqué? Too exuberant in a mushy way that might make certain people squirm uncomfortably? :-)
>
> Actually, I just don't think it's all that good. If I thought it was really too personal or squirm-inducing, I don't think I'd even post it here.
>
> >...translations are so dauntingly literal that they exclude multiple meanings from the Hebrew poetry.
>
> I've never studied the Song of Songs very closely, so I'm ignernt as to the richness of its meanings in the original Hebrew. That would be a nice subject to read a paper on, though, if anyone has written about it.

Well, all you'd have to do is get a bunch of different translations together and compare/contrast them. See if you can get ahold of the Complete Jewish Bible, the Stone Chumash*(at the link below) and the Tanakh.

> > Touch me again!
> > In the moment you broke from me,
> > I knew nothing
> > But the emptiness of longing,
> > My ears filled with far-off thunder
> > And my vision with the vast tracts
> > Of a distant wasteland
> > When its spring rainfall burns away.
> > Yes, hold me!
> > The hunger of Oureboros consumes me.
> > Under your caress alone
> > The tremulous fires burn sweetly,
> > Satin'd honey and cornsilk locks
> > Glowing from warmth to warmth,
> > Slowly loosening my Gordian knot.
> > Come, embrace me eternal!
> > Let the very flows of the Lethe
> > Be parched dry in prodigious recall,
> > Drawing the nectar of Mnemosyne to memory.
> > May this moment stretch forever --
> > Oh, hold me and kiss me again!
>
> Well, you've out-Greek-myth'ed me, for sure. :-)
>
> Did you produce this parallel poem in just a few minutes? If so, do you often just come up with verse right on the spot? Earlier in the thread, I wanted to invent a little impromptu poetry of my own in response to Kiki's beautiful piece, but was rather dry of inspiration. Ah, well.
>
> One of the things I like best about your poetry (which probably showed in the P-A-M version of it) is your description of colors and textures, or materials with their own distinct, inherent color and texture. I don't know if that's because you do it well, or because I just happen to be affected by that sort of thing. Probably both. :-)
>
> Iss "she's got vast .... tracts o' wasteland!" achar

*The Chumash to which I am referring is 1) the Torah(Genesis-Deuteronomy), 2) the Haftorah readings(which I will explain upon request, if I don't have to leave just then), 3) the Megillot(Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther), and 4) commentaries on each. Note: This version is a non-Messianic book, and some of the commentary will seem way-out(that's how *I* find it, anyway). But there are some interesting viewpoints in there, anyway. I noticed that the Song of Songs in this version is very non-literal, but it's an interesting read.

Nyperold