Time begins on Opening Day

[nitrah55]

Ernie Harwell, longtime voice of the Tigers, always put it this way:

For, lo, the winter is past,
The rain is over and gone;
The flowers appear on the earth;
The time of the singing of birds is come,
And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.

Of course, he plagerized this, and altered one word.

Anyone care to tell us where he swiped it from, and which word he altered?

[MarleysGh0st]

Anyone care to tell us where he swiped it from, and which word he altered?

I don't know the answer to the first part, but my hunch is that turtles don't have much of a voice.

[ulysses5019]

When I was young, besides going to Dodger games and dodging the beer vendors, we owned several turtles....never heard word one from them.

[earendel]

Ernie Harwell, longtime voice of the Tigers, always put it this way:

For, lo, the winter is past,
The rain is over and gone;
The flowers appear on the earth;
The time of the singing of birds is come,
And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.

Of course, he plagerized this, and altered one word.

Anyone care to tell us where he swiped it from, and which word he altered?

The quote comes from the Song of Solomon - the "turtle" is a reference to turtledoves, which do have voices.

The altered word would be "appear" - in the KJV it is "appeareth".

[littlebeast13]

Anyone care to tell us where he swiped it from, and which word he altered?

I don't know the answer to the first part, but my hunch is that turtles don't have much of a voice.

We're about to get an MM visit to prove you wrong it looks like....

lb13

[nitrah55]

Well, ear got it right, even though he skipped over his acknowledgment that the word is supposed to be "turtledove," not "turtle."

Ear, are you telling me the word in the KJV is "turtle?"

I like to describe the Song of Solomon as the book of the Bible that they wouldn't teach in Sunday School.

[The Voice of the Turtle]

Anyone care to tell us where he swiped it from, and which word he altered?

I don't know the answer to the first part, but my hunch is that turtles don't have much of a voice.

We do now, and we are going to use it. We demand turtle bridges across highways! And other stuff to keep us safe.

OK, we have a voice, but it's new, and we're not sure how to use it yet.

[ulysses5019]

Is this the kind of turtle bridge you want?

http://www.cartooncritters.com/turtlebr ... ridge.html

[earendel]

Well, ear got it right, even though he skipped over his acknowledgment that the word is supposed to be "turtledove," not "turtle."

Ear, are you telling me the word in the KJV is "turtle?"

I like to describe the Song of Solomon as the book of the Bible that they wouldn't teach in Sunday School.

Yes, the word in the KJV is "turtle".

And you've never attended my Bible study class.

[nitrah55]

Well, ear got it right, even though he skipped over his acknowledgment that the word is supposed to be "turtledove," not "turtle."

Ear, are you telling me the word in the KJV is "turtle?"

I like to describe the Song of Solomon as the book of the Bible that they wouldn't teach in Sunday School.

Yes, the word in the KJV is "turtle".

And you've never attended my Bible study class.

Clearly, my loss.

Despite its textual - how shall I say this- peculiarities, the KJV is (as someone other than me observed) a rare instance of a great piece of art being put together by a committee.

[TheCalvinator24]

Well, ear got it right, even though he skipped over his acknowledgment that the word is supposed to be "turtledove," not "turtle."

Ear, are you telling me the word in the KJV is "turtle?"

I like to describe the Song of Solomon as the book of the Bible that they wouldn't teach in Sunday School.

Yes, the word in the KJV is "turtle".

And you've never attended my Bible study class.

Clearly, my loss.

Despite its textual - how shall I say this- peculiarities, the KJV is (as someone other than me observed) a rare instance of a great piece of art being put together by a committee.

Well, they did have pretty good material to work from.

[MarleysGh0st]

The quote comes from the Song of Solomon - the "turtle" is a reference to turtledoves, which do have voices.

So did the translators get that wrong or doesn't Hebrew have a word to clearly distinguish the two?

And, since the subject has been raised, how is this particular species of dove turtle-like, anyway?

[etaoin22]

The only clues I detect in the poetry are the relatively free but not formless line structure, the fact that it is raining rather than snowing for the winter, the relatively clear feeling that this is original in English rather than a translation, the use of the word "lo".

I would thus be looking for British poet of early 20'th century.

The "singing of birds" line sounds almost like an answer to "Now is the time of the burning of the leaves, which is Laurence Binyon, which will be my final answer.

I assume "tiger" replaced "turtle" in Mr. Harwell's ode to a new season, confabs on the mound, Clevelanders and Detroiters, and referring back to Charley Gehringer.

[earendel]

The quote comes from the Song of Solomon - the "turtle" is a reference to turtledoves, which do have voices.

So did the translators get that wrong or doesn't Hebrew have a word to clearly distinguish the two?

And, since the subject has been raised, how is this particular species of dove turtle-like, anyway?

The answer to your first question is that in 1611, the word "turtle" was used to describe the bird. Why, I can't say.

[edited: Wikipedia suggests that their call, which sounds like "turrr-turrr", and that's whence the name derives.]

As to the second question, I have no idea.

[Peter5858]

Ernie Harwell, longtime voice of the Tigers, always put it this way:

For, lo, the winter is past,
The rain is over and gone;
The flowers appear on the earth;
The time of the singing of birds is come,
And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.

Of course, he plagerized this, and altered one word.

Anyone care to tell us where he swiped it from, and which word he altered?

May I note for the record that the Bible itself, in its manifest inerrancy, reveals the transcendent significance of baseball, when the Good Book states that it all began "In the Big Inning. . . ."