Evening’s roses: erev shel shoshanim
Another upcoming wedding, another song. Erev shel shoshanim is a classic. Unfortunately, the first few results for translations of its lyrics are far too literal1 and hardly able to be sung to its beautiful tune.
The original song also approximately rhymes the 2nd and 4th line of each of its three stanzas, which none of those translations do. So here is my go at a singable translation of Erev Shel Shoshanim:
|
Evening of roses Slowly the nighttime falls At dawn, a cooing dove |
Erev shel shoshanim Layla yored le’at Shachar homa yona |
ערב של שושנים לילה יורד לאט שחר הומה יונה |
Notes:
- Although most insist that shoshanim are roses, when the word often means lilies. [↩]
How do you read all the hebrew letters without dotted vowels in them…?
I have been learning biblical hebrew, and now am anxious to learn some real currently used hebrew…
By the way… it’s a nice and neat blog of yours.
Comment by Luke Lee — 31 December, 2008 @ 4:00 pm
Reading without vowels is not so different from knowing how to pronounce English words, despite the fact that there is not a lot of consistency between the letters used and the pronunciation (especially with regard to vowels). In this case, it is particularly easy to read because I know the song! But knowing the patterns that words are likely to fall in, and what they mean, is really what helps.
Comment by Joel — 13 January, 2009 @ 3:25 pm
תודה רבה על האתר הנחמד, אהבתי.
גם אני מזמינה אותך להכנס לבלוג שלי
ולקרוא את ספר השירה הראשון שלי:
המאהבת של האמת – אופנת השירה היפה
90 שירים נוקבים סוראליסטים וציוריים של חיפוש אחר החופש המשמעות והיופי שבהלך
החיים המתרחשים בכמה עולמות.
באהבה ושמחה, רחל לוריא
http://tinyurl.com/dauqoh
Comment by Teejugbex — 22 January, 2009 @ 9:58 am
I’m a beginning Hebrew learner and haven’t run across the answer to why some words appear to have dipthongs, but single vowels seem to be the norm for Hebrew (except for some Ashkenazi pronounciations) My question:
Why is ורוח pronounced veruach instead of verucha?
“Verucha” seems to follow the pattern of classical/biblical Hebrew. Can you clarify this for me?
Thanks.
Comment by Julian Girouard — 29 June, 2010 @ 5:09 am
Hi Julian,
The phenomenon you refer to is known as “furtive patah/patach” or a פתח גנובה.
Hebrew pronunciation developed such that certain guttural consonants can only appear at the end of a syllable if proceeded by an a-vowel. This is because of how the throat needs to be positioned to pronounce a guttural, and is not entirely unlike the way nasal consonants (n, m, ng) in English affect the vowel before them (though not as much as in French), or how in Japanese if you stick the sound ‘s’ before an i-vowel, it becomes “shi”. Nowadays, when most Hebrew — under European influence — does not pronounce the gutturals very gutturally, it is much harder to comprehend what’s going on, and listening to an eastern pronunciation of the word might help make it clearer.
But then why is it written so strangely? You have to remember that the vowels were added to the alphabet to describe certain pronunciation phenomena, not the other way (which is what you as a learner is trying to do), so ultimately you just need to accept what the Masoretes who added the vowels have done! They did not have the option of adding in another letter under which to write the vowel before the final guttural. Some typesetting does indicate the furtive vowel a little to the right of the final letter; but once you’ve learnt the rule it’s never broken, so usually extra typesetting sophistication is unnecessary.
Comment by Joel — 29 June, 2010 @ 1:07 pm
Thankyou so much Joel for your great rendition and work on translation!
Comment by Tal Marron — 14 November, 2011 @ 2:15 pm
You’re welcome, Tal! Happy singing!
Comment by Joel — 14 November, 2011 @ 2:37 pm
Hi there,
I thought you – and others – might be interested in this English rhyming version of Erev Shel Shoshanim that I worked on for my friends’ wedding a couple of years back. It’s more of an interpretation of the original than a literal translation, as literal translations, even when they rhyme, can sound a little awkward.
All the best!
Danny.
Roses fill the night
‘Neath stars and sky we meet
All my senses lead me to
The threshold at your feet
Evening begins to fall
As breezes of roses bring
Whisperings so quietly
Songs of love to sing
We wake to sounds of dawn
Your hair is bathed in light
Your mouth to the morning like a rose
To kiss again tonight
Comment by Danny — 18 December, 2011 @ 6:34 am