I'd eat my avatar if anyone recognized this Bible passage from the book I finished Friday:
That is how poet/scholar David Rosenberg translates a portion of the 21st chapter of the book of Job in
A Literary Bible: An Original Translation. I'll readily admit (as I don't read Hebrew) that I could be wrong, but it's my suspicion that the translator may have taken some liberties with the original text in the name of poetic license. Not to worry; he says quite plainly that, "[M]y practice as a poet was brought to bear on the English language: often I found myself as if remaking an ancient poem or sentence. Yet this is no different a position than many biblical authors found themselves in, working with and adapting much older sources." This may not pacify his critics, but this former Jewish Publication Society editor said that his intention in writing the book when he began the project more than thirty years ago was to translate the literary works of the Bible as if they were written by poets and prose artists.
It should be noted that this is not a complete translation of the Tanakh, but rather a sampling of some of it's literary passages. Although I prefer his prose translations over his poetic ones (possibly a result of my own long-stand biases and understanding of the texts), I found Rosenberg's book as well as his commentary on the selected passages to be both rewarding and challenging. While this book will never replace any current Bible versions, it is a fascinating and original take on the literature of the Hebrew Scriptures. Out of a possible 5 stars I give it 3½.