Beginnings: The First Testament

The language of emotions and symbols is, par excellence, that of poetry. Yet the Bible uses a language of symbols from nature or the history of Israel that call and respond in echo throughout its various books including those of the New Covenant. Beginnings uses poetry to bring out the interplay of symbols or the deeply human aspect of emotions present in texts of the First Testament; it explores also different human experiences. Therefore, it does not in itself require any particular knowledge of the Scriptures to be appreciated. However, as this knowledge can help with grasping the poems in all their dimensions, some notes may support the reader to do so. The texts were first written in French, and it seemed useful to put the original text in front of the translation, as the play of rhythms and sonorities often could not be rendered in the latter. However, the entanglement of symbolic games and the deep description of emotions that poetic language allows is fully kept in the English text, and thus all readers can appreciate the poems, letting the words penetrate them by the magic of poetry.

Thierry Guillemin lived for twenty years as a semi-hermit in a contemplative setting, before receiving a more apostolic call. He is now a minister of the Church of England.