The Book of Lamentations

This unique translation of the Old Testament book, with reflections on Judaism’s mournful history, “not only allows but demands rereading” ( Pleiades ). Distinguished poet David R. Slavitt here provides a translation of and meditation upon the Book of Lamentations, the biblical account of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 587 B.C., on the ninth day of the Jewish month of Av—Tish’a b’Av. (Six centuries later the Romans destroyed the second Temple on the same day.) Most of the Jewish p