Cuvintele lui Qohílt ben Dawíd [971-931 î. Ch.], regele Ierusalimului

The Words of Qohílt ben Dawíd [971-931 BC], King of Jerusalem

Abstract

This current work is a fresh translation of the Biblical book of Ecclesiastes into Romanian, with a few exegetical footnotes. The translation was made according to the following principles: (1) a critical approach to the Masoretic Text, which is a normal approach in any scientific translation from ancient languages; (2) a literary (artistic, aesthetical) rendering of the idea in Romanian. Since the Masoretic Text shows both verses and prose in this book, as it is displayed in the critical editions of the Hebrew Bible, following Codex Leningradensis, the prose text was translated in prose and the poetic text was translated in poetry, as it is perceived by the common people today, with some prosodic elements–rhythm and rhyme–in spite of the usual absence of rhyme or rhythm in the original text. Such a translation cannot be literal, nor can the original text be mutilated for the rhyme’s sake. This is only a tentative approach.