Lamentations: Reading and recitation

Qinah de-mystified

The 3–2 qinah rhythm is vital to the first four chapters.

If you have ever recited nursery rhymes, or heard kids excitedly calling them out in the playground, then you already know how to do it. Here are some well-known examples and their respective rhythms. This first is in 4–3: in each couplet the first line has four strong beats ("Ma-", "Ma-", "quite", "-tra-"), and the second has three strong beats ("how", "gar-", "grow"):

This second is in 4–4: in each couplet, both have four strong beats.

The rhythm is maintained and the varying number of words simply slot naturally into place. But that said, don't be too rigid about it; give it natural fluidity.

Here are the opening verses from this rendering of Lamentations 3 in its characteristic 3–2 qinah rhythm:

And in the final chapter, where 3–2 qinah is largely replaced by 3–3, although not entirely so, a sense of rhythm is still entirely appropriate.

Lamentations, not Psalms

A superficial glance at the layout on the page might suggest that the poems of Lamentations are like the Psalms, with short lines set out as couplets.^[1] But they are frequently quite different.

With the Psalms, most readers of Jewish and Christian background are very much aware of a parallelism governing a significant majority of the couplets.^[2] Here is a typical, near-random example: the closing three couplets from Psalm 88, also a lament:

In the psalm example, observe how each couplet (verse) is self-contained and a complete sentence. Within the verse, observe how each half-verse could itself almost be regarded as a self-contained sentence (although expressed as two full clauses). Observe how a verse can be seen as standing alone from its neighbouring verses.

But the poetics of Lamentations can contrast significantly with this. The thought processes often do not fall neatly at half-lines or even within full couplets. This running-across of expected borders is "enjambment".

• A large majority of the verses of Lamentations, perhaps two-thirds, utilise enjambment across the half-verses,^[4] and particularly in chapters 1–4.^[5] One half-verse is incomplete and non-sentential without the other.
• Enjambment may run across two or more verses. The quasi-narrative of 2:1–4 provides a good example.
• Sometimes a thought that has run across several verses can abruptly stop mid-verse, with that mid-verse then giving way to a new thought. Perhaps the most striking example is at the mid-point of 3:42.

Awareness of this is useful for the reader, and vital for reciter and lector. For a much fuller exploration see Dobbs-Allsopp (2001a) and Dobbs-Allsopp (2001b).

Recurring theme words and phrases

Be alert to particular words that recur. A few examples:

• The opening "Alone she sits…" (1:1) is picked up at the centre "Lonesome let him sit…" then returns and is reflected in the closing "And you, Lord, sit forever…" (5:19).
• "Notice" and "look" form a running thread across the chapters, often paired. See the translation notes for further details.
• Chapter 1: recurrent "all", which subtly helps establish the "A to Z" totality of the alphabetic acrostic.
• Chapter 2: "ground" thread; "pour" thread.
• Chapter 4: "disgorge" thread (a continuation of chapter 2's "pour" thread)
• Biblical poetry often refers to "hand" and "face".
  • "Hand" occurs several times in each chapter.
  • "Face", while less common, can nevertheless be particularly important, not least because of the theological association with "the face of God" in the Torah (the foundational first five books of the Bible). See 4:16 and its footnotes.
• The word "ravaging" threads through 2:11, 2:13, 3:47, 3:48 and 4:10.
  • At 2:11, 3:48 and 4:10 the second half-line is common: "at my Daughter People's ravaging". From the qinah perspective this would ideally have just two strong beats: "at my Daughter-People's ravaging".
  • At 3:47 each half-line itself has its own alliteration.

(t.b.c.)