A varied readership.

I have no doubt that many more people have read the Bloch translation of Song of Songs, and have mentioned it on their websites and their blogs, than the few instances I found where the particular verses I was looking for get quoted. And that being the case, the handful of sites here can in no way be seen as characteristic of anything. Still, they're pretty interesting.

In addition to the examples below, two books that show up via Google Book Search quote the verses, though no preview is available for Life Prayers : From Around the World : 365 Prayers, Blessings, and Affirmations to Celebrate the Human Journey by Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon, and the Encyclopedia of love in world religions, Volume 1 By Yudit Kornberg Greenberg only quotes part of the turtle-related verses. (The entire book, by the way, is available via Scribd, though I don't know if this was done by the author or publisher, or in a less legitimate manner.)

But of course the really interesting examples are the ones that have been uploaded by "regular" people. On a forum site called Crossroads Pond which seems to have started in 2007 and was (perhaps) originally intended to be a place for a group of friends to exchange thoughts, one participant, pustelniakr, quotes a number of verses, noting that people who find the more traditional translation "a bit risque" will find this one overly passionate.

A Facebook group devoted to what seems to be a small ceremony service called Your Personal Ceremony posted the verses as part of some examples of texts that might be used in some of the ceremonies they apparently conduct.

A Facebook member who goes by the name Brothers through Christ posts daily devotionals, and last month (considerably after I conducted my original search) posted the Song of Songs verses under the heading Lenten Prayer - though I have to admit that my limited knowledge of Lent doesn't help me in understanding how these verses might be related to that.

Perhaps the most intriguing quoting of the verse (though only up to, and not including, the turtle) is on a page on what seems to be a Chinese blog. I had to enlist the services of Google Translate to get a feel for what the page is about, and I admit that I'm not sure whether it was the confessions of a youthful blogger, or a short story of some sort:

Why do not you marry me (7) 
Passing Lee Reprimanded by her teacher rushed voice, rushed the stage gracefully style music just playing, I secretly sigh breath and began to clumsily's legs. More than three minutes later, we stand iron clatter to the ground and brutally to put on a proud and uphold justice and righteousness, in the impassioned music with the gradual closing of the light suddenly Zuoniaoshousan hastily withdrew. A burst of applause was exaggerated as pioneers, and off to pieces of applause reluctantly behind.

Back to back I am surprised to see that the A sam, he made a move I flash the victory sign to a face Jiugen the other boys came through Taiwan to the central drum.
I like the atmosphere that these sentences create, though I have to admit that, not knowing any Chinese, what I'm appreciating may not be what the author intended to convey, and is instead the inadvertent result of a machine translation.



Go to: On finding a turtle's voice.