Le grand livre du Cantique des cantiques

For two millennia the Song of Songs has remained the most widely discussed book of the Bible. It contains a number of pages that are as unique as they are mysterious, so much so that their inclusion in the canon of scripture was the source of considerable controversy among both Jews and Christians: of a troubling ambiguity, their interpretation evokes both the erotic and spiritual dimensions of love. Whether it expresses the loving bond between God and Israel, Christ and his church or man and woman, this song of consuming beauty and sensuality is the most sublime exaltation written on the love of a couple. In this Great Book, Frank Lalou and Patrick Calame offer us all the necessary elements for a complete approach to the Song of songs: the first word for word translation of the Hebrew into French, a compendium of French translations produced since the Renaissance until the modern day, particularly those of Calvin, Lemaître de Sacy, Renan and André Chouraqui, the leading interpretations, verse by verse, by leading figures in Jewish and Christian translation, a phonetic version and a comprehensive glossary of all of the poem’s Hebrew terms.