Between Exegetically Appropriate and Politically Correct. Towards a Responsible Interpretation of Canticles 1:5-6

A comparison of ancient and modern translations of Canticles 1:5-6 confronts the reader immediately with the obstinacy of the text. In this verse, the girl presents herself using two adjectives: 'dark' and 'lovely'. There has been a lot of fuss about these two adjectives, especially in recent decades, and more precisely on the translation of the conjunction between them. According to some interpreters – in rendering a text into their target language, also translators interpret their source text – the girl is 'dark but lovely'. In order to avoid the possible connotation of this translation as if there is a contradiction between 'dark' and 'lovely' – the girl is beautiful, despite the fact that she is dark – others let her be 'black and lovely'. Although, according to the Hebrew original, both interpretations are possible – the conjunction waw can have both an adversative and a conjunctive meaning –, this discussion mainly seems to be inspired by the concern to use so-called politically correct language. The present paper will deal with this issue, in order to arrive at a responsible exegesis of this verse, which seems problematic particularly to many contemporary readers