Divrei ben Abuya

In the Babylonian Talmud, Elisha ben Abuya was a great sage who lost his faith in God. So great was he that his and subsequent generations continued learning from him - to the extent that the authors of the Talmud needed to create a story that would serve to legitimise his teachings despite his apostasy. His lesson is a lesson for us all: that great stature is not contingent upon blind faith, nor high learning upon the observation of Torah precepts.

June 28, 2006

שר הטבעות

שָׁלֹשׁ טַבָּעוֹת לְמַלְכֵי עֲלָפִים תַּחַת שְׁמֵי הַטְּלָלִים
שֶׁבַע לְשַׂרֵי גַּמְדָּאִים בִּנְקָרוֹת עוֹטוֹת־צֵל
תֵּשַׁע לִבְנֵי־הָאָדָם, בְּנֵי־תְּמוּתָה אֻמְלָלִים
אַחַת לְשַׂר הָאֹפֶל עַל כִּסְאוֹ הָאָפֵל
בְּאֶרֶץ מוֹרְדוֹר, שָׁם רוֹבְצִים הַצְּלָלִים
טַבַּעַת אַחַת לִמְשׁוֹל בּכֻלָּן, טַבַּעַת אַחַת לְמָָצְאָן
טַבַּעַת אַחַת לְהָשִׁיב אֶת כֻּלָּן, בָּאֹפֶל לְכָבְלָן
בְּאֶרֶץ מוֹרְדוֹר, שָׁם רוֹבְצִים הַצְּלָלִים

מתרגם: אוריאל אופק

4 Comments:

At 4:21 AM , Blogger geon said...

Wow! Did Ofeq (=Yonatan Ratosh) translate all of LOTR?

 
At 11:34 AM , Blogger SFH said...

I don't know of this Yonatan Ratosh of whom you speak, but yes: I have it sitting on my lap right now! (Um, the book, not the translator...)

It's an excellent translation: Ofeq does the poems and Ruth Labanit (?) does the prose. They have also translated every single footnote, the maps, and each of the appendices. If you're both a LOTR fan (who isn't?) and a lover of Hebrew (again, who isn't?) then I heartily recommend it!


(Ohr Yehuda: Kinneret, Zmora-Bitan, Dvir - Publishers, 2004)

 
At 10:57 PM , Blogger Steg (dos iz nit der šteg) said...

I read the Hobbit in Hebrew, it was pretty cool. Except they translated "elves" as sheidonim which makes no sense in context of what these 'elves' are.

I don't know if making up a new word עֶלֶף is the best method, though.

 
At 11:36 PM , Blogger SFH said...

I specifically liked the Aramaising א on the end of גמד :-) Very classical...

I guess that עלף is supposed to reminiscent of אלוף? Whatever it is, I'm sure it beats 'little devils'.

 

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