The Pearlsong

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The Pearlsong

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Title:	The Pearlsong
Genre:	Hymn
Written:	ca. 3rd century
Length:	233 pages
Original in:	Syriac
Availability:	The Pearlsong - US
	The Pearlsong - UK
	The Pearlsong - Canada

	from: Bookshop.org (US)

	directly from: Harvard University Press

Part of the apocryphal Acts of Thomas (but only found in two of the extant manuscripts)
Translated and with an Introduction by Adam Bremer-McCollum
With a Foreword by Charles M. Stang
This edition presents the Syriac text, as well an ancient Greek translation and a Byzantine paraphrase and English translations of each of these, as well as a transcription of the Syriac text, a Syriac-English glossary and concordance, and a Greek-English glossary
This is the first volume in the Texts and Translations of Transcendence and Transformation-series
Previously translated by F.Crawford Burkitt as The Hymn of Bardaisan (1899), and in various translations of the Acts of Thomas (e.g. by A.F.J.Klijn (1962; rev. ed. 2003))

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Our Assessment:

(-) : exemplary in its presentation, of and about a nice little work

See our review for fuller assessment.

The complete review's Review:

       'The Pearlsong' is a poem of just over 100 lines found in the apocryphal Acts of Thomas -- though preserved in just two of the six Syriac and ca. seventy-five Greek manuscripts of that work; in addition, there is a paraphrase of the work in an eleventh-century (or so) Byzantine homily.
       This edition of The Pearlsong presents these three versions of the poem in the originals, as well as English translations of each, facing the Syriac and Greek texts. The Syriac version is presented both in West Syrian script and then separately also in a transliterated transcription. There is a Syriac-English glossary and concordance, as well as a Greek-English glossary. There is also a separate (and lengthy) Commentary -- not quite line by line, but more than even the usual detailed endnote-collection. Along with a Foreword and an Introduction, as well as four appendices, the volume covers pretty much all the bases, both in presenting the text as well as providing background and insight into and about it.
       In his Introduction, translator Adam Bremer-McCollum notes that while it seems clear 'The Pearlsong' was written in an Aramaic language: "given the idiosyncrasies of language in the text, it may be that the poem was composed in a non-Syriac Aramaic language first and then adapted, more or less, to Syriac", so possibly we are dealing entirely with translations here.
       The text itself -- 'The Pearlsong' -- is (in the Syriac version) written in verse, a poem or hymn (F.Crawford Burkitt titles his translation: 'The Hymn of Bardaisan'; A.F.J.Klijn titles it: 'The Hymn of Judas Thomas the Apostle in the country of the Indians' -- though a section in Bremer-McCollum's Introduction asks: 'Is it really a hymn ?'); the Greek versions, however, are both in prose.
       The narrative is a fairly simple one, the narrator recounting how he was sent, when he was just a little child, from his homeland in the East to Egypt, to retrieve a pearl being guarded by a snake, with the promise then that upon his return he was to become heir to the kingdom (along with his brother).
       He describes his journey, including how when he comes to Egypt he dresses like the locals: "so they wouldn't suspect that I'd come from abroad":

But some way or other they figured out I wasn't one of them.
They tricked me into joining them and they accustomed me to their fare.
I forgot I was a son of kings, and I served their king.

       Nevertheless, his parents get wind of what has happened to him; they send him a letter -- which: "flew like an eagle [...] flew and landed by me, and the whole thing became speech". He comes back to his senses and remembers his mission, retrieves the pearl, and heads home triumphantly.
       The Greek version differs only slightly from the Syriac -- basically it is a translation, with only a few small outright changes or omissions and some different phrasings --, while the Byzantine paraphrase, also in Greek, is a freer retelling of the story. The Syriac version is in verse ("with a baseline rhythm of six-syllable couplets"); the transcription of the text gives readers some sense of that (as does the Syriac original, for those who can read that); the English translation does not attempt to re-capture most of the formal poetic elements of the original; nevertheless, it reads quite nicely. (An Appendix on 'Syriac Meter and The Pearlsong' helpfully offers additional examples and explanation of its poetry.) The Greek version(s), in prose, are also more straightforward in translation, but in all the cases it's a fine -- if quite compressed -- little story with some striking bits. The text is short enough that the threefold-presentation doesn't make for tiresome repetition; the fairly simple and yet elusive story, with its slight variations from one version to the next, easily bears such re-reading.
       Both Foreword and Introduction provide useful overviews, both in placing and considering the text -- including the question of, as Bremer-McCollum has one of his section-headings: 'What does it mean ?' as both he and Foreword-writer Charles M. Stang consider whether and/or to what extent 'The Pearlsong' is allegorical. The extensive Commentary then provides additional insights and references -- impressively thorough and helpful, if occasionally in its (attempted) range reaching a bit far ("Flying or soaring "like an eagle" is a catchy, well-used metaphor from Akkadian to the Steve Miller Band (1976), and more", or: "This imagery recalls the Guardian of Forever's time portal in the Star Trek episode, 'The City on the Edge of Forever'"), but especially helpful in its wide range of references (the eighty-page commentary has nearly 280 footnotes).
       Among the supplemental material provided is also an appendix of relevant: 'Excerpts from the Acts of Thomas' (these presented only in English translation), as well another appendix, offering: 'Some Texts on Pearls' -- these presented both in the original (Coptic, Syriac, Hebrew, and Arabic) as well as English translation.
       The glossaries, as well as an appendix on: 'Some Linguistic Features of The Pearlsong', are certainly also helpful for anyone looking to engage more seriously with the original texts.
       The Pearlsong would seem to cover pretty much every possible aspect of 'The Pearlsong' -- including much more than the average reader will be able to do much with. Still, it's nice to have all the references, and these quoted in the original languages. (There are quotes in a lot of different languages here, as suggested in (just part of) Bremer-McCollum's explanation of the 'Transliterations and transcriptions' in the text: "Inscriptions in Aramaic languages, in this case Old Aramaic, Palmyrene, and Nabatean are given in Phoenician and Palmyrene script, respectively, and in transliteration in angled brackets < >. Mandaic is in Mandaic script and in transcription" [...] Coptic, Akkadian, Jewish Babylonian Aramaic, Arabic, Armenian, etc. -- are given in their usual scripts or transliterated following norms that will be clear to readers and students of those languages").
       The Pearlsong is a treasure-trove of information -- yet presented and arranged also so clearly and systematically that readers can choose how many layers deep they want to go, without being overwhelmed by the material (i.e. it's easy enough to leave aside or skip over the parts the delve deeper than the reader wants or needs). 'The Pearlsong' is a nice little work in and of itself, and this edition exemplary in its presentation of the different versions and its wealth of supporting material in every form.

- M.A.Orthofer, 22 July 2025

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Links:

The Pearlsong:

Harvard University Press publicity page
The Pearlsong - full text of book [pdf]

Other books of interest under review:

See Index of Bilingual editions under review
See Index of Books Written Before 1900

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