From: CS Bartholomew <jacksonpollock AT earthlink.net>
To: hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Alter and poetry v. prose (was Alter on Translation)
Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2003 12:29:50 -0700
Bryan,
Need to take this a little bit at a time.
On 8/19/03 5:05 AM, "B. M. Rocine" <brocine AT twcny.rr.com> wrote:
> Gen 31:36b-40 (POETRY):
>
> What is my crime, what is my guilt
> that you should race after me?
>
> Though you rummaged through all my things,
> What have you found of all your household things?
Gen. 31:36b mh p#(y mh x+)ty ky dlqt )xry
This looks like parallelism. Not sure what to call ky dlqt )xry but it seems
to work as poetry according to Alter's definition.
Gen. 31:37 ky m##t )t kl kly mh mc)t mkl kly bytK #yM kh ngd )xy w)xyK
wywkyxw byN #nynw
However in Gen. 31:37 we have a problem, the repititon of kly. The verb
changes and I suppose m##t and mc)t show a certain progression of thought
even if they are not synonymous in a strict sense, but if repititon of
constituents is a feature of prose then we have that here with kly.
Alter's criteria is useful but I suspect it is not bomb proof, literature is
not math. "The line between poetry and prose is sometimes rather difficult
to draw ..." M.Pope Job, AB lv, 3rd ed.