LITERAL VERSION OF THE PSALMS. BY THE REV. FREDERIC FYSH, M.A. AUTHOR OF "ANASTASIS EXAMINED," "CATECHISM OF THE APOCALYPSE," PREFACE. DURING the last three hundred years nearly seventy entire metrical versions of the Psalms have issued from the press sixty-five are enumerated in "Anthologia Davidica." The first of these was published in 1549, just three centuries ago,-and was the production of Robert Crowley, Vicar of St. Giles's, Cripplegate. The second appeared in 1561, and was the work of Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury. The third followed in 1562; it was the joint production of Thomas Sternbold, John Hopkins, and others. These versions possess various degrees of merit, and represent the original with greater or less fidelity. Some are uncouth in style, harsh in diction, and rugged and discordant in metre. Others are overloaded with ornament, and disfigured with tawdriness and finery. Take for instance that fine passage in Psalm xviii. 10. And He bow'd the heavens, and descended : This is translated by Brady and Tate as follows:- While heaven bow'd down its awful head ; Was, like a sable carpet, spread. a Many translators spiritualize the Psalms, as it is termed, to adapt them to Christian worship. Dr. Watts's version is of this kind; as also Christopher Smart's. The latter begins his 1st Psalm thus : The man is blest of God through Christ, Where broader ruin lies Nor has descended to a seat, Their Saviour to despise. : Such compositions are not to be hastily condemned. Only care should be taken that they be viewed in their true character, as imitations of the Psalms, not as translations. In fact, they partake of the nature rather of hymns than of psalms. For congregational singing it may be necessary that the Psalms be in rhyme, and that each particular Psalm be in some well-known metre, whether Long Metre, Common Metre, Short Metre, or one of the ordinary Peculiar Metres. But it is impossible, in the nature of things, for such translations to be literal. There may be a general likeness to the original, but the nicer and more delicate touches cannot be retained. Besides, it must be borne in mind that the Psalms were intended for private meditation, no less than for public worship. What is said in the first Psalm of the righteous with respect to the law of Jehovah in general, may be specially said of him with respect to the Psalms in particular. The Psalms of David are his delight: On the Psalms doth he meditate day and night. A lyrical measure without rhyme is obviously the only measure which can secure a literal and metrical version. The absence of rhyme and the indefinite length of each line do away with the necessity of omission on the one hand, and addition on the other. All Procrustëan violence is avoided, and each hemistich is left, so to speak, to choose its own metre. This measure is adopted in the present trauslation. And, generally speaking, it will be found that the number of feet in each hemistich the number of ideas in such hemistich. = The following lines from Psalm ix. contain four ideas each, and consist of four feet accordingly. The heathen are sunk in the pit that they made; In the net which they hid, their foot is taken : Jehovah is known by the judgments He executes; In the work of his hands, the wicked is snared. The following lines from Psalm i. contain three ideas each, and consist of three feet accordingly : Nor stands in the way of sinners: Nor sits in the seat of scorners. Indeed he is like to a tree By canals of waters planted; Which produces its fruit in its season. The first hemistich of the sixth verse consists of four ideas, and is a tetrameter; the second of three ideas, and is a trimeter : For Jehovah blesses the way of the righteous: Whenever the number of feet corresponds to the number of ideas, the hemistich flows with great smoothOf course this correspondence cannot always be maintained. Neither is it observed in the original, ness. |