Beginnings

The First Testament

Thierry Guillemin

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781666775242, 9781666775259
• eBook ISBN: 9781666775266
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Religious Poetry
• Index: Literature

The language of emotions and symbols is, par excellence, that of poetry. Yet the Bible uses a language of symbols from nature or the history of Israel that call and respond in echo throughout its various books including those of the New Covenant. Beginnings uses poetry to bring out the interplay of symbols or the deeply human aspect of emotions present in texts of the First Testament; it explores also different human experiences. Therefore, it does not in itself require any particular knowledge of the Scriptures to be appreciated. However, as this knowledge can help with grasping the poems in all their dimensions, some notes may support the reader to do so. The texts were first written in French, and it seemed useful to put the original text in front of the translation, as the play of rhythms and sonorities often could not be rendered in the latter. However, the entanglement of symbolic games and the deep description of emotions that poetic language allows is fully kept in the English text, and thus all readers can appreciate the poems, letting the words penetrate them by the magic of poetry.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface
• Création
• Creation
• Les anges
• The angels
• « Que soit lumière ! »
• “Let there be light!”
• Premiers jours
• First days
• Voie lactée
• Milky Way
• Troisième jour
• Third day
• Les yeux
• The eyes
• Prime-jour
• Prime-day
• La vie
• Life
• Tes mains ont façonné
• Your hands have shaped
• L’enfant d’homme
• The child of man
• Il riait aux étoiles
• He laughed with the stars
• Le fruit
• The fruit
• Le monceau de terre
• The mound of soil
• La mort d’Adam
• Adam’s death
• Alliance
• Covenant
• la tour
• the tower
• La promesse
• The promise
• Sodome
• Sodom
• L’épreuve
• The ordeal
• Le combat avec l’ange
• The wrestling with the angel
• La tunique
• The coat
• Le Nom
• The Name
• Passage
• The passing
• La montagne
• The mountain
• Josué
• Joshua
• L’appel
• The call
• L’ascension
• The ascension
• La cithare
• The zither
• En-Dor
• Endor
• Le Mont Guilboa
• Mount Gilboa
• La mort du fils
• The death of the son
• L’invasion
• Invasion
• Crise
• Crisis
• L’attente
• The wait