THE FACE OF WATER: A TRANSLATOR ON BEAUTY AND MEANING IN THE BIBLE

Book ID/图书代码： 02330017C00007

English Summary/英文概要： In The Face of Water, Sarah Ruden brilliantly and elegantly explains and celebrates the Bible’s writings. Singling out the most famous passages, such as the Genesis creation story, the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Beatitudes, Ruden reexamines and retranslates from the Hebrew and Greek what has been obscured and misunderstood over time.
Making clear that she is not a Biblical scholar, cleric, theologian, or philosopher, Ruden—a Quaker—speaks plainly in this illuminating and inspiring book. She writes that while the Bible has always mattered profoundly, it is a book that in modern translations often lacks vitality, and she sets out here to make it less a thing of paper and glue and ink and more a live and loving text.
Ruden writes of the early evolution, literary beauty, and transcendent ideals of the Hebrew Bible and the Greek New Testament, exploring how the Jews came to establish the greatest, most enduring book on earth as their regional strategic weakness found a paradoxical moral and spiritual strength through their writings, and how the Christians inherited and adapted this remarkable literary tradition. She writes as well about the crucial purposes of translation, not only for availability of texts but also for accountability in public life and as a reflection of society’s current concerns.
She shows that it is the original texts that most clearly reveal our cherished values (both religious and secular), unlike the standard English translations of the Bible that mask even the yearning for freedom from slavery. The word “redemption” translated from Hebrew and Greek, meaning mercy for the exploited and oppressed, is more abstract than its original meaning—to buy a person back from captivity or slavery or some other distress.
The Face of Water is as much a book about poetry, music, drama, raw humor, and passion as it is about the idealism of the Bible. Ruden’s book gives us an unprecedented, nuanced understanding of what this extraordinary document was for its earliest readers and what it can still be for us today

Chinese Summary/中文概要： 在本书中，Sarah Ruden睿智而精妙地解释了《圣经》中的内容。其中不仅有例如创世纪和十诫之类的著名篇目，还有一些希伯来语和希腊语的篇目，因为翻译的问题一直被人误解或误读。

首先要说明的是作者本人并非圣经研究学者，也不是神职人员、神学家或者哲学家，而是一个贵格教派的教友。她用平直的语言撰写了这本发人深思的书。她之所以选择这个话题是因为《圣经》对于人们而言无比重要，但在现代翻译过程中这本书变得缺乏朝气和活力。她想要让《圣经》不仅停留在纸面上，更是受人爱戴、让人感觉到爱与活力的文字。

Ruden在书中写到了希伯来语《圣经》和希腊语《新约》中的创造、美和那些超然的想法，探索了犹太人是如何创造出如此伟大和历久弥新的巨著，尽管这个民族不如过去那么强大，但他们的精神力量之强却透过文字保留了下来。她还从翻译的角度再现了一些关键性段落，其中折射出当今社会的焦虑。

作者认为只有原创的文字才能最好地反引出我们最为真实的价值观念，最常见的《圣经》英文版翻译却不加掩饰地挂着阻止人们挣脱奴役向往自由的面具。事实上，“拯救”一词翻译自希伯来语和希腊语，意思是对那些被压迫和被剥削的人的慈悲，这个词的意义比它原本的意思来得抽象。本书就是这样一本关于诗歌、音乐、戏剧、幽默和热情的书，也是一本探究《圣经》想法的书。Ruden的作品让我们对于《圣经》有了此前从未想到过的理解，也探索了《圣经》对于其最早期的读者和对今日的我们所带来的不同意义。（LYR）

Awards/获奖情况：如果你很想知道《圣经》究竟讲了些什么，却没有时间或者没有勇气去学习阅读原版所需要的语言，那么Sarah Ruden就是你最好的指导老师了，她能够帮助你在注重找到友谊、找到一种虽然并不非常正式、却是从学者的视角出发的对于一个完美译本的理解。（J. M. Coetzee，著有《The Childhood of Jesus》）

内容充实，无论是对语言、对于《圣经》或者我们如何阅读和理解这本书感兴趣的读者都能通过本书找到自己想要看的内容。（C. Christopher Smith，《RELEVANT》杂志）

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“If you seriously want to know what the Bible says but don’t have the time or the courage to master Biblical Hebrew or Koine Greek, then Sarah Ruden is the best guide you are likely to find: friendly, informal, yet with a scholarly grasp of just how unrealizable perfect translation is.” —J. M. Coetzee, author of The Childhood of Jesus

“A meaty work that will delight both those who are fascinated by language, and those who care deeply about the Bible and how we read and interpret it.” —C. Christopher Smith, RELEVANT Magazine

“Ruden finds hidden meaning in the intricate arrangement of the ancient vocabularies, poetics, and lifestyles, and therein lies the fun. The book is often a master class in translation and Bible studies . . . Entertaining, academic and easygoing.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Ruden’s work emphasizes the complexity inherent in translation; she lingers on some of the most challenging concepts and explicates the historical and linguistic context for her work, debunking both myths and poor prior interpretations. The book is not only a scholarly analysis, though, but a paean to the rhythm and poetry of the text. Ruden also diverges from standard academic tone, weaving her own personal stories together with her intellectual task; all this makes the reader feel as if they are spending time with a fun—and very smart—friend. This combination of casual ease and serious scholarship allows Ruden to bring fresh insights into even the most familiar stories and will make the book a true pleasure for anyone with an interest in translation or the Bible.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

About the Author/作者介绍： SARAH RUDEN在密歇根州立大学、约翰•霍普金斯学院和哈佛大学接受教育，拥有古典文献学的博士学位。她翻译过六部经典的文学作品，也从个人视角翻译过一系列古希腊艾斯克琉斯的悲剧，收录在英国的悲剧作品合集之中。奥古斯丁的《忏悔录》是她翻译的第一部宗教文学作品。此外，她还著有诗歌集《Other Places》。Ruden是布朗大学的访问学者，住在康涅狄格州的Hamden。

SARAH RUDEN was educated at the University of Michigan, Johns Hopkins, and Harvard, from which she graduated with a Ph.D. in Classical philology. She has translated six books of Classical literature and contributed her Aeschylus’s Oresteia to a collection of tragedy in English. Her translation of Augustine’s Confessions was her first book-length work of sacred literature. She is also the author of a book of poetry, Other Places. Ruden is a visiting scholar at Brown University and lives in Hamden, Connecticut.

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Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE

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