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Sunday 6 June 2021

Habakkuk 1:14

 Assonance again. Here's a verse I came across somewhat randomly. It came up in the context of a growly nature, pondering things that seem important to the aged that cannot be explained to children because they are really not important.

Notice how impossible it is to catch the compactness of the Hebrew. 8 words. Perhaps I thought of this because Psalm 8 is on the horizon and I wondered what translation and what tack Christopher Page will choose this week as I follow his thoughts.

And you make humanity as the fish of the sea, // as a creeper that has no governor over it.

vtywh adm cdgi him, // crmw la-mowl bo

ve-te-'asah adam ce-degi ha-yam ce-ramas lo-moshal bo (a very rough approximation)

The rhyme is in this verse adam and ha-yam.  h-i-m is two syllables. The i is not a vowel here.

and lo with bo. The aleph a is pronounced o in this case. A guttural (aleph or ayin) can carry any vowel.

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