Customer Reviews

Hebrew Love Poems

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Being a lover of Jewish poetry, I eagerly bought this book when I saw it on your web site. However, I was a bit disappointed. First, because I felt that some of the translations were a bit strained - although I cannot comment on their quality, not speaking the original language of the poems, I had the feeling that in some cases an effort was made to maintain the rhyme, and I believe that, in translating poems (even rhyming ones) one should not try to force rhymes, but stick to the flavor and meanings of the original as close as possible. I have seen few exceptions to this (translations which are poems in their own right, the work of very gifted translators), and that is why I prefer translations who keep to the literal side of the original. Also, I would have enjoyed at least some succint biographical information on the poets or some explanation of the poems' contexts - especially of ancient works. This would have contributed to the richness and completeness of the anthology, which, being as it is, is a bit sparse. In spite of the above, this is an interesting book which contains some very beautiful works deserving of attention.