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On Translating Medieval Hebrew Writing
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Extract
This essay is intended to appear in place of a review of two recent publications, one an English version of a famous work of medieval Hebrew poetry, published in this country, and the other a translation of a classic of the middle ages, a treatise in legal prose, issued in the United States. The first is Solomon Ibn Gabirol's (Avicebron's) great religious hymn Kether Malkhuth, The Kingly Crown; the second is Maimonides' Sepher Haphla'ah, The Book of Asseverations, the sixth of the fourteen sections of his halakhic code Mishneh Torah, or Yad hazaqah. The Kether was composed in the eleventh century in Arabic Spain and in the course of time became part of Jewish Synagogue liturgy; the Yad was compiled in the twelfth century in Egypt and soon came to be considered as the authoritative codification of Jewish religious law. Gabirol wrote his poem in the Hebrew idiom of the Bible, a style commonly employed by the poets of his era and area. Maimonides, dealing with talmudic law (and sources) used in his code the Hebrew diction of the post-biblical Mishnah, a literary innovation considering the fact that hitherto rabbinic works had been written in the Aramaic of the Talmud. His contemporary critics, therefore, occasionally also accused him of mistranslating (and halakhically misinterpreting) his Aramaic sources of the Talmud.
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References
page 163 note 1 Gabirol, Solomon Ibn, The Kingly Crown, newly translated by Lewis, Bernard, London, 1961Google Scholar.
page 163 note 2 The Code of Maimonides, Book six, The Book of Asseverations translated by Klien, B. D., Yale University Press, New Haven, London, 1962Google Scholar.
page 163 note 3 See RABaD's marginal remarks to Mishneh Torah, Shabhuoth VI, 9: “This author (i.e. Maimonides) made himself a translator from the language of the Talmud into Hebrew, and in different phrasing; but he erred in his rendering.”
page 164 note 1 For the expression see Esther ii, 17; there Kether Malkhuth is set upon the queen's head. But Klausner, J., Pilosofim we-hogey deot, Jerusalem, 1924 (Heb.), I, p. 157, quotes Pirquey R. Eliezer, XXIII, where the phrase is referred to God:
Google Scholar
page 164 note 2 Already in medieval manuscripts of the Maḥzor (prayers) for the Day of Atonement the song is to be found.
page 164 note 3 See Encycl. Judaica, vii, p. 9; Latin, Diadema Regni, in Poma Aurea, F. Francisci Donati, Romae 1618; Yiddish, 1674, by Uri Phoebus; Persian, 1895, by Badadschan, Jerusalem; Arabic in Schocken manuscript, Jerusalem.
page 164 note 4 Corona de Reyno, in: Orden de Ros-Ashanah y kipur nuevamente traduzidas … por Ishac Nieto, Londres 1740.
page 164 note 5 According to AV, Est. ii, 17.
page 165 note 1 The Order of the Form of Prayers … Day of Atonement, according to the custom of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews, transl. by Levi, David, vol. iii, second ed.London 1810Google Scholar In Jewish Encycl. 1916, viii, p. 262, s.v. Mahzor, the year 1794 is given for the first ed. Cf. also Jew Enc. viii, p. 26 on D. Levi.
page 165 note 2 A paraphrastic rendering of ‘malkhuth’ to emphasize its reference to God.
page 165 note 3 Forms of Prayer (Day of Atonement) … transl. by Sola, D. A. De, London, 1837Google Scholar; — The Jewish Year, a collection of devotional poems transl. by Lucas, Alice, London 1898, p. 140 ff.Google Scholar; — The Book of Prayer (Day of Atonement) … English translation based principally on the work of De Sola by Gaster, M., Oxford University Press, 1934, p. 47 ffGoogle Scholar. (first edition 1901). I. Zangwill, 1923.
page 165 note 4 Might Prof. Lewis have intended by this new phrasing to avoid the ring of an over-worked expression echoing from the word “royal” (for the contemporary reader)?
page 165 note 5 Ehrensäulen u. Denksteine v. Leopold Dukes, Wien, 1837, p. 58 ff. (”die erste Übersetzung in hochdeutscher Sprache”).
page 165 note 6 Königs Krone v. Salomon Ibn Gabirol, Metrisch übersetzt v. Leopold Stein, Frankfurt a.M. 1838; Königs Krone … Mit möglichst treuer Übersetzung v. Joseph Hirschfeld, Berlin 1838; Sam. Mayer (in Israel. Musenalmanach) 1840; Michael Sachs, Die religiöse Poesie d. Juden in Spanien, Berlin 1845, pp. 1–29, Die Königskrone; cf. Luther's rendering of Esther ii, 17 — ”königliche krone”, but Torczymer, Die Heilige Schrift, Frankfurt a.M. 1937, “Königskrone”.
page 165 note 7 Italian by M. Bolaffi 1809; Dutch by G. Pollack 1839; cf. Encycl. Jud. vii, p. 9, s.v. Gabirol.
page 165 note 8 Prières des Jours du Rosch Haschanah et du Jour du kippur, Nice 1773, by Mardochée Venture; see Jewish Encycl. xii, p. 417 and Enc. Jud. vii, p. 9.
page 165 note 9 See Maimonides, , His Teachings and Personality, ed. by Federbush, S., 1956, p. 146 (Heb.)Google Scholar; cf. Bibliography of Maimonides by Gorfinkle, Joseph T., ed. by Epstein, I., London, 1935Google Scholar.
page 165 note 10 The Main Principles of the Creed and Ethics of the Jews … from Yad Hachazakah of Maimonides, with literal English translation by Bernard, Herman H., Cambridge, 1832Google Scholar. Peppercorne, James, The Laws of the Hebrews relating to the Poor and the stranger from the Mishne Hatorah of the Rab. Maimonides, London, 1840Google Scholar. Soloweyczik, Elias, Maimonides, Moses, Yad-Hachazakah of Mishneh-Torah translated, edited and revised, London, 1863Google Scholar.
page 166 note 1 Glazer, Joshua, Book of Mishneh Torah with RABaD's criticism and references, translated into English N.Y. 1927Google Scholar. The Mishneh-Torah by Maimonides, , Book I, edited, with introduction, Biblical and Talmudical references, Notes and English translation by Hyamson, Moses, N.Y. 1937Google Scholar. The Mishneh-Torah, Book II, with an English translation by M. Hyamson; the Talmudical references… by C. M. Brecher, N.Y. 1949.
page 166 note 2 See Kether Malkuth xxxvi (defiled the utterance of my lips, 
) and xxxvii (makes smooth his speech, is prodigal of vows 
) cf. Num. xxx, 3.
page 167 note 1 For these terms see Knox, R. A., On English Translation, Oxford, 1957, p. 14Google Scholar.
page 167 note 2 ρμηνεύω, interpreted, tirgem 
all stand both for translating and expounding. See Ezra iv, 7, methurgam 
; LXX, ρμηνευμένην; AV, interpreted; RSV, translated; Luther, verdolmetscht; Rashiy, elucidated 
; cf. Gertner, M., Terms of scriptural interpretation, Bull. School of Oriental and African Studies, XXV, I, 1962, p. 17Google Scholar.
page 167 note 3 See Isa. vii, 1–4; AV, virgin; RSV, young Woman; Matt, i, 23; AV, virgin; Rieu, The Four Gospels, Penguin Classics, 1956, maiden.
page 167 note 4 Yves Bonnefoy, Shakespeare and the French poet, Encounter, June 1962, pp. 40, 41, 42 and 38.
page 168 note 1 Arnold, Matthew, On translating Homer, Everyman's Library, 1909, p. 218Google Scholar.
page 168 note 2 Ezra Pound, Literary Essays, Faber, p. 267.
page 168 note 3 Hermann Cohen, Aesthetik, I, p. 385: es ist falsch, dass die Metapher… nur ein rhetorischer Schmuck wäre.
page 169 note 1 Talmud Babl. Qiddushiyn, 49a; M. Ibn Ezra, Shirath Yisrael, p. 132, quoted by Schirmann, Molad, Tel Aviv, 140, 1960, p. 108; Cohen, J. M., English translators and translations, British Council, 1962, p. 20Google Scholar, quoting Dryden; W. W. Robson, New English Virgil, The Observer, 24.2.63, quoting Pound; Knox, op. cit. p. 14; E. V. Rieu, The Iliad, Penguin Classics, 1954, p. 18.
page 169 note 2 See his introduction to the Guide for the Perplexed (Moreh Nebhukhiym) — 
page 169 note 3 Cf. Wolfgang Schadewaldt, Hellas u. Hesperion, 1960, pp. 526, 539 on Goethe; pp. 529, 537 on Schleiermacher.
page 169 note 4 See M. Arnold op. cit. 272; J. M. Cohen, op. cit. pp. 20, 26.
page 170 note 1 Franz Rosenzweig, Sechzig Hymnen u. Gedichte des Jehuda Halevi, pp. 112 111, 108, 107; Martin Buber u. F. Rosenzweig, Die Schrift u. Ihre Verdeutschung, 1936, pp. 89, 121, 114.
page 170 note 2 Cf. M. Arnold, op. cit. 239, 256; Knox, op. cit. 20; J. M. Cohen, 21.
page 170 note 3 Œuvres complètes de Diderot, 1875, IX, p. 70: Traduction d'un Sonnet; p. 42: Traduction Libre … de la première Satire d'Horace.
page 170 note 4 Diderot op. cit. VI, p. 425.
page 170 note 5 Cf. J. M. Cohen op. cit. pp. 24, 46, 23, 25.
page 170 note 6 Heller, S., Die echten Hebraischen Melodien, 1893, p. XI (Introduction by David Kaufmann).Google Scholar
page 170 note 7 F. Rosenzweig, Sechzig Hymnen … des J. Halevi, p. 111.
page 171 note 1 See Shirmann, H., Hashiyrah Haibhrith be-Sepharad 1954, I, p. 486.
Google Scholar
page 171 note 2 Micah i, 8; Ps. cxxxvii, 1–3; cxxvi, 1–2.
page 172 note 1 Cf. Rosenzweig. J. Halevi, p. 172.
page 172 note 2 Lucas, A., The Jewish Year, pp. 129, 30Google Scholar.
page 172 note 3 LXX, Vulg. Ps. cxxvi, 4 and Talmud Babl. Ta'anith 8b have “captives” returning with the “ingathering of the exiles”; but RSV, “restore our fortunes”, and Knox, “deliver us from our bondage”, equally have abstract formulations.
page 172 note 4 Songs of Exile, translated by Davis, Nina, 1901, p. 38Google Scholar.
page 173 note 1 Heller, op. cit., Introduction (Kaufmann) p. XIV.
page 173 note 2 Ibid. p. 144.
page 173 note 3 Rosenzweig, J. Halevi, p. 102.
page 173 note 4 Ibid. p. 112.
page 174 note 1 Martin Luther, Vorrede z. Deutschen Psalter, quoted by Rosenzweig in Die Schrift u. ihre Verdeutschung, p. 94; Luther, Ein Sendbrief vom Dolmetschen, cf. Kurt Aland, Luther's Deutsch, 5, p. 74.
page 174 note 2 Ps. Ixiii, 6.
page 174 note 3 Matth. xii, 34; Luther, Ein Sendbrief, p. 73.
page 174 note 4 Buber-Rosenzweig, , Die Schrift u. ihre Verdeutschung, pp. 91, 92Google Scholar; Ps. lxviii, 19; Eph. iv, 8; Talmud Babl. Shabbath 89a refers the verse to Moses.
page 174 note 5 Cf. Rosenzweig, J. Halevi, p. 115 on biblical quotations, the translator ”darf nicht den Anspielungsgehalt der Sprache unterdrucken”. See Gertner, M., Midrashim in the New Testament. Journal of Semitic Studies VII, 2, 1962, p. 282Google Scholar about Luke i, 77, where The New English Bible version “lead his people to salvation” instead of the original's “to give knowledge of salvation” misses the “Anspielungsgehalt” of the phrase, referring to John, in Hebrew Yofcanan, God granted, or "“gave”.
page 175 note 1 Prose: Donati, Nieto, D. Levi, De Sola, Gaster, Zangwill, Lewis, Hirschfeld; M. Sachs: Rhymed prose; metrical and rhymed: A. Lucas, L. Stein (see p. XXXIV, XXXVIII, “Deutsches Metrum”); cf. Zangwill p. L: “to translate him into bare prose seems to me the only licence permissible”; p. LII: “if I rid him of his last fetters, I bring back his poem to a truer Hebraism”.
page 175 note 2 Zangwill, S. Ibn Gabirol, p. 82 
page 175 note 3 Zangwill, p. XXXVI (J. Dayindson's introduction); Dukes, Ehrensäulen, p. 16: “An die Spitze seiner Gedichte … stellen, wie es der Verfasser selbst in dem kleinen Vorworte thut.”
page 176 note 1 Ps. cxxxvii, 6.
page 176 note 2 Stein, Sachs and Zangwill translated this little metrical poem in metrical form. The others rendered it in prose.
page 177 note 1 Although according to M. Ibn Ezra, Shiyrath Yisrael, p. 205, the Hebrew poets learned this technique from the Arabs; cf. David Yelin, Torath Ha-shiyrah Ha-Sepharadith, Jerusalem, 1940, p. 119.
page 177 note 2 Cf. Selected Poems of Ezra, Moses Ibn, translated by Solis-Cohen, S., Schiff Library of Jewish Classics, 1945, p. 81Google Scholar where the Hebrew 
is rendered: “The kisses of the beautiful one are sharp as hail, as the hail of Egypt, filled with fire.” Egypt is not mentioned in the Hebrew original, but burning hail is known from the Egyptian plagues, see Ex. ix, 24; the translator sensed this and instead of a literal rendering he preferred an expository paraphrase.
page 178 note 1 See L. Dukes Schire Schlomo II. Heft, 1858, p. 79 
; p. 78 
; cf. Zangwill, op. cit. p. liii, “delight”, “pleasure”; Dukes, Ehrensäulen, p. 14, “Ein solcher Vers war der Diamant, welcher die ganze Fassung überstrahlt”.
page 178 note 2 Tahkemoniy, chapt. IX, 
page 178 note 3 Zangwill, op. cit. liii.
page 178 note 4 Rosenzweig, J. Halevi, p. 115; see here p. 174, n. 5.
page 179 note 1 Cf. Zangwill, p. lii.
page 179 note 2 Ps. xxiv, 8; lxvi, 6, 7; cf. also Isa. xlii, 13; Zeph. iii, 17.
page 179 note 3 Babl. Giṭṭiyn 56b, on Ex. xy, 11; Yoma 69b, on Deut. x, 17; Siphre Num. 134, Friedmann, p. 50b, on Deut. iii, 24; Mekhilta Beshallah. V. Friedman, p. 38b, on Ex. xv, 6.
page 180 note 1 Lewis, B., The Kingly Crown, p. 30Google Scholar.
page 180 note 2 Deut. iii, 24.
page 180 note 3 I Chr. xxix, 11.
page 180 note 4 Ex. xv, 6, 7.
page 180 note 5 Ps. cxlv, 9, 11, 12; cf. also Isa. lxiii, 15.
page 180 note 6 Babl. Yoma 69b; the concept “gabhar”, to be mighty, never occurs in the OT in relation with “rahamiym”, mercy, but we find it connected with its synonym ”hesed”, see Ps. cxvii, 2; in talmudic language we have the concept of “kabhash”, subdue, connected both with “gibbor”, a mighty or strong character (Aboth iv, 1: ”who is mighty? he who subdues his passion”), and with “rahamiym” (Babl. Berakhoth 7a, where, paradoxically, God himself prays: “may it be my will that my mercy may subdue my anger”).
page 181 note 1 Gen. vi, 4.
page 181 note 2 Ps. ciii, 20; cf. Kether chapter XXV, Lewis p. 45: “They are the messengers of Thy will … They are majestic in strength, mighty in dominion.”
page 181 note 3 Kether chapter XXXVI, God's “mercies” as “company” righting against man's “enemy”, the yeṣer hara'.
page 181 note 4 Cf. Bacher, W., Die Bibelexegese der Jüdischen Religionsphilosophen d. Mittelalters, 1882, pp. 45–55Google Scholar; D. Kaufmann: Studien über S. Ibn Gabriel, 1899 (Hebrew: Mehqariym, Mosad Kook, 1962, pp. 126–35); Julius Guttmann: Zu Gabirol's allegorischer Deutung d. Erzählung vom Paradies, MGWJ, 80, 1936, pp. 181 ff.
page 181 note 5 See Singer's Prayer Book, Morning Service, Second of the Eighteen Benedictions; cf. Gen. Rab. xiii, 4, on Gen. ii, 5; see also Elbogen, J., Der Jüdische Gottesdienst, second ed. 1924, p. 44Google Scholar.
page 182 note 1 The Hebrew text reads: 
page 182 note 2 See Ps. cxl, 9; LXX, Vulg. and AV, “mercies”; cf. also Lewis chap. XXXVI, ”company of Thy mercies”.
page 182 note 3 Cf. De Sola, p. 39.
page 182 note 4 Dukes, , Ehrensäulen, p. 14Google Scholar.
page 183 note 1 A. Lucas, p. 142.
page 183 note 2 Gen. iii, 22.
page 184 note 1 B. Lewis’ rendering, with some alterations relevant to the discussion; the italicized words and phrases are the present writer's version.
page 184 note 2 II Sam. xviii, 3; Num. xxii, 6.
page 184 note 3 Babl. Qiddushiyn 30b 
; cf. the Qumran Manual of Disc. IV, 20, 21; Hodayoth VII, 27; XIII, 14–17, particularly IV, 35, 36.
page 184 note 4 Gen. xxxii, 9.
page 185 note 1 Zach. iii, 1.
page 185 note 2 Babl. Baba Bathra 16a 
.
page 185 note 3 See Matth. iv, 3.
page 185 note 4 See Jer. xv, 8, Qimḥi there.
page 185 note 5 LXX Est. VII, 4; cf. Zach. iii, 1.
page 185 note 6 Gen. Rab. xxii, 12, on Gen. iv, 5.
page 185 note 7 Shirmann, op. cit. p. 280 takes it as the “Reserves stationed in the town”; but Zeidmann, in his Kether edition, with commentary, Jerusalem, Mosad Kook, 1950, p. 78, explains it as “enemy”.
page 186 note 1 See Buber and Torczyner II Sam. xviii, 3: “Hilfeaufzuerwecken”, “Ansporn”.
page 186 note 2 To Gabirol's notion of God as “giver” of “faith” cf. Rom. xii, 3.
page 186 note 3 About this see M. Gertner, The terms pharisaioi … Bull. School of Oriental and African Studies XXVI, 2, 1963, p. 247.
page 187 note 1 See Babl. Sanhedriyn 97a, on Lev. xiii, 13, where “white” is taken as the ”doctrine of heresy”; see also Tanḥuma Tazria', XI, on Lev. xiii, 2, where ”bahereth” is interpreted to mean the Hellenistic influence against the Jewish faith.
page 187 note 2 Lev. xi, 33; here Lewis aptly changed AV's “shall” into “is”; Levi (”pollutes”), De Sola (”does defile”), Zangwill (”defiling”) take the intransitive ”yiṭma' “ as a transitive “yeṭamme' “; see Mishnah Soṭah V, 2 and Mark vii, 23.
page 187 note 3 Lev. xiii, 23.
page 187 note 4 Cf. Matth. xxiii, 27: “hypocrites … like whited sepulchres”; see Babl. Soṭtah 22b, where hypocrites are called “ṣebhu'iyn”, “painted” or “whited”. See above n. 1.
page 187 note 5 Cf. Syriac Ps. xxxv, 16; Prov. xxvi, 18, and Sirach xxxiii, 15.
page 187 note 6 See Gen. xxii, 13.
page 188 note 1 Kether chap, xvii; see Zangwill, p. liii, quoting this in particular as an instance of “bad taste”, grotesque in a poem of the sublimity of the Kether (see p. 95 his rendering); compare Rückert, Die Makamen des Hariri, 1844, p. 24, where the Arabic poet plays on a verse of the Qoran.
page 188 note 2 See Service of the Synagogue, published under the sanction of Dr. Hermann Adler, New Year, 19th edition, 1953, p. 150 (translator Arthur Davis). 
See Maḥzor Roedelheim, 1832, the Hebrew commentary: 
page 188 note 3 The Form of Prayers, New Year, According to the custom of the German and Polish Jews, 1807, translated by D. Levi, revised by J. Levi, p. 131.
page 188 note 4 Compare Ex. Rab. XXXIV, 1, on Ex. xxv, 10 and Ps. xci, 1: “he who dwells in the secret is the most high” (… in the shadow is shadday); Tanḥuma Num. XXIII, on Num. vii, 1: “he who dwells in the secret shelter of God who is the most high (in the shadow of shadday).”
page 189 note 1 See Yeḥiel M. Halevi's Maṭṭeh-Levi commentary to the Maḥzor, takes shadday as subject.
page 190 note 1 Deut. xvi, 17.
page 190 note 2 Mishneh Torah Ḥagiygah I, 2; Arakhiyn VIII, 13.
page 190 note 3 The Code of Maimonides, vol. IV, The Book of Offerings, translated by Danby, H., Yale Judaica Series, 1950, p. 49;Google Scholaribid. The Book of Asseverations, translated by B. D. Klien, p. 210.
page 190 note 4 Ḥagiygah I, 2, Book of Offerings, p. 49.
page 190 note 5 Lev. xxvii, 26.
page 191 note 1 Mishneh Torah Temurah IV, 11; see Babl. ‘Arakhiyn 29a, where “lo' yaqdish” is changed into “ 'al taqdish” by those who want it to mean a clear prohibition.
page 191 note 2 Mishneh Torah, Nedhariym I, 13, Book of Asseverations, p. 60.
page 191 note 3 See Karo's Keseph Mishneh ad. loc, quoting also R. Abraham.
page 191 note 4 Zach. v, 4.
page 191 note 5 Babl. Shabhu'oth 39a; Mishneh Torah Shabhu'oth, XI, 16; Book of Asseverations, p. 49.
page 191 note 6 Cf. Kittel-Kahle edition.