When Man awakes from the slumber God put upon him, he remarks, in the KJV, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” This is an oft-quoted phrase, and the most curious word in it is the seemingly innocuous now. “This is now…” is a translation of the Hebrew phrase זֹ֣את הַפַּ֗עַם. The first word in the phrase, זֹ֣את, is a standard Hebrew feminine demonstrative, and almost all translations understand it to refer to the newly created woman. The second word is where it gets interesting. What is פַּ֫עַם? Its range of possible meaning extends from step or foot to wheel or anvil. And then finally, time, which is how it seems to be used here. The Septuagint gives νῦν and the Vulgate nunc. Outside the context of the whole verse, I could reasonably translate זֹ֣את הַפַּ֗עַם as this is the anvil.
I translate the phrase as finally. This is rather loose, but I think it captures the temporal nature of the phrase and the mood of the verse. God had said he would provide Man an aid and then creates the beasts, whom Man names. He names the beasts but does not find an aid among them. When Man awakes he finds the aid he was promised… the one without whom his being in paradise is incomplete.
Another interesting phrase: עַל־כֵּן֙. This phrase opens verse 24. עַל is a preposition meaning on, in, upon, above. You might recognize it from the name of the Israeli airline El Al (more on the meaning of that strange, biblical name). Together with the adverb כֵּן֙ it seems to mean something like therefore. I used the archaism On this to retain an echo of the original preposition and the meaning of the combined phrase.
And now, the closing verses of chapter two:
LORD God dropped sleep over Man who slept took one of his ribs closed him with flesh LORD God fashioned the rib He took from Man into Woman led her to Man Man said, “Finally bone from my bones flesh from my flesh called Woman because from Man she was taken” On this man leaves his father his mother embraces his woman one flesh The two Man, Woman bare untroubled.
I’m happy to announce another translator interview in the works: with Natasha Wimmer, translator of Roberto Bolaño and Mario Vargas Llosa.
Onward to chapter three!