Weep with Jeremiah

Written languages convey both meanings and sounds. Each language has its own peculiar characteristics. Therefore, it is difficult to translate a piece of text from one language to another.
One of the difficulties has to do with meaning. Every word carries more than one meaning. Even for synonyms, each of them carries different shades of the same meaning. Moreover, the ways a particular word is used in a particular culture will evoke different feelings even among synonyms. Words are like clouds and no two clouds are identical. This difficulty happens within every language.
What is worst, many concepts, thus words, do not find their counterparts in another language. For example, there is only one word for "love" in Hebrew but at least three in Greek.
Another difficulty comes in the style of a language. For example, Hebrew has no comparatives. It expresses comparatives with repetitions or contrasts. Therefore, to say that you love one thing more, Hebrew says that you love one and hate the other!
Alas! Nobody is able to translate with 100% accuracy in meaning. Poetry is even more problematic.

Today, we read Lamentations 2. It is poetic. Prophet Jeremiah wrote Lamentations to express his grief over the destruction of Jerusalem.
There are 22 Hebrew alphabets and there are 22 verses in Lamentations 1, 2, 4 and 5. Guess what! Each verse begins with an alphabet in sequence. This kind of poems is called acoustic. There are 66 verses in Lamentations 3. Three verses form a stanza and begin with the same alphabet. To the best of my knowledge, no English translation is able to do this acrobatic trick. Chinese language has no alphabets and cannot be acoustic. So far, we have not touched upon the problem of sounds and rhythm. It is hopeless. That is why we need to learn Hebrew in order to appreciate Hebrew poetry.

In reading poetry, we try to grasp the imagery created. Alas! Images are culturally conditioned. For example, which animals are cunning, serpents, foxes or rabbits? How do you express sadness with tears? In Chinese, we "wash our face with tears". In Hebrew, "tears become our food all the days". So, it is difficult to convey an image with the same force.

We have been living in comfort and convenience for too long. We may no longer be able to feel what Jeremiah felt. Anyhow, reading Lamentations will enrich our hearts so that we will be better able to weep with those in despair.

My eyes are spent with weeping; my soul is in tumult; my heart is poured out in grief because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because infants and babes faint in the streets of the city (Lamentations 2:11, RSV).
我的眼痛哭，至於失明，五內沸騰，肝腦塗地。眼見我的女兒—人民遭受摧殘，眼看著幼童乳兒昏厥在城中的街道上。

כָּלוּ בַדְּמָעוֹת עֵינַי, חֳמַרְמְרוּ מֵעַי--נִשְׁפַּךְ לָאָרֶץ כְּבֵדִי, עַל-שֶׁבֶר בַּת-עַמִּי: בֵּעָטֵף עוֹלֵל וְיוֹנֵק, בִּרְחֹבוֹת קִרְיָה

Dear Lord, we have not loved enough. We are not able to feel what others feel. Help us to love more. Amen.

Feast of St. Irenaeus

Today, the Catholic church celebrates the Feast of St. Irenaeus. He was a bishop of Lyon in the second century. St. Irenaeus lived in a period of relatively peaceful time between massive persecutions from the Roman Empire. Therefore, he was able to devote his time in refuting the heresy of the day: Gnosticism.
The reading today is chapter 2 of Lamentations which consists only of 5 poems. The first four poems are acrostic. That is they are made up of multiples of 22 verses, each beginning with the 22 Hebrew alphabets in sequence! Lamentations is one of the 5 Megillot, liturgical scrolls to be read in special days in Judaism. It is read for communal mourning. Nowadays when individualism is prevalent, it is not easy to appreciate the emotions of sufferings in a community. We can only experience such emotions in times of great disasters like the recent Sichuan earthquake. But even for us in Hong Kong, it is difficult to share the emotions unless we happen to be touring in Sichuan. We can only see them in TV footages.
Lamentations is not about natural disasters. Rather, it is about war atrocities. The Jews saw Yahweh turn against them and butcher them without mercy! Of course, they saw this as a punishment for their rebellion against Yahweh. Yet, when their very Saviour turned against them in blind rage, it was really too much to bear.
The Lord has destroyed without mercy all the habitations of Jacob;
in his wrath he has broken down the strongholds of the daughter of Judah;
he has brought down to the ground in dishonor the kingdom and its rulers (Lamentations 2:2).
In our time of economic prosperity, it is heart-renting to read of the plights of famine, of young children starving to death on the bosom of their mothers. In time of hardship, the poor and the weak, without any security cushion, are the first to bear the brunt, the hardest hit.
My eyes are spent with weeping; my soul is in tumult;
my heart is poured out in grief because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,
because infants and babes faint in the streets of the city
They cry to their mothers, "Where is bread and wine?"
as they faint like wounded men in the streets of the city,
as their life is poured out on their mothers' bosom. (Lamentations 2:11-12).

My Advocate, like a summer gnat, it is unconvincing for me to talk about the chill of winter. You are the Spirit of Love. Awake in us the awarenss that we are one with each other on this planet. Grant us empathy so that we may be able to share genuinely the sufferings of our neighbours. Extinguish the selfishness in our hearts so that we will be able to contribute generously to relieve the sufferings of our brothers. Amen.