Or, or, or

“It can be ‘breath’ or ‘life-breath.’ It can mean ‘throat’ or ‘neck’ or ‘gullet.’ Sometimes it can suggest ‘blood.’ It can mean ‘person’ or even a ‘dead person,’ ‘corpse.’ Or it can be ‘appetite’ or something more general: ‘life’ or even ‘the essential self.’ But it’s not quite ‘soul’ ”: Robert Alter on translating the Bible.

[I twice used Alter’s translation of the Book of Job in undergrad classes. Highly recommended.]