September 19, 2022

A Closer Look at Josh's Translation of Psalm 9

A Closer Look at Josh's Translation of Psalm 9

Last week, I discussed some of the translation philosophy behind my oral translation of Psalm 9. This week, I want to show how this philosophy influenced my translation choices in three key areas: genre, key terms, and sound play. If you have not listened to my translation of Psalm 9, or read last week's email, you may want to now!

Genre choice: spoken word

I chose to turn Psalm 9 into spoken word poetry because it overlapped the most with the semantic and poetic content of the psalm and meshed best with my intended use for the psalm. In the original, the psalm was poetically structured with a heavy text load (instead of a consistent refrain) and features multiple word plays and sound plays. These poetic features forced me to choose between a ballad, country music, or spoken word. The semantic content of the psalm narrowed my decision down to spoken word. In Psalm 9, the Psalmist, as you heard, passionately calls for the LORD's justice and derides His enemies. Spoken word is one of the primary genres used to fulfill both functions in US English. Unlike the ballad and country music, spoken word even has a specific subgenre devoted to making fun of opponents, called slam poetry.

Two key term choices

I translated 'whole heart' (בְּכָל־לִבִּ֑י) as "every fiber of my being"

1 I will thank the Lord with every fiber of my being I will talk about every one of Your wondrous deeds

In verse 1, the term "heart" (לִבִּ֑) appears most often in contexts of romance in the rap and spoken word with which I am familiar. Thus, I chose an alternate phrasing. Katie had already suggested "every fiber of my being" as a translation for "all of my heart." Instead of rendering כָל as "all," I translated it as every in both 1a and 1b. I also translated it as "every" in 9:14 and 9:17 to maintain any links made through repetition.

I translated 'afflicted' (עני) as "victim"

12 for the One who seeks out violent men remembers, He does not forget the cry of their victims. 

13 Lord, have mercy on me Look at how I'm the victim of those who hate me!

The noun עני, often translated "afflicted," appears frequently in Psalms 9-10. It occurs in 9:12, 13, 18; 10:2, 9, and 17 (Craig 2004, 115). This term may have acquired a technical sense in the Psalms but appears to refer to the poor and afflicted (ibid). The definitions given to this noun by the Lexham Theological Wordbook (Davis 2014), the Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (Coppes 1999), and the Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (de Blois and Mueller 2021) all indicate that the adjective/noun עני refers to a group of people who are socially or economically oppressed. By extension, these people have a lower, "humble" status. God, thus, provides legal protection for these people in the Torah (Ex. 22:25, Deut. 24:12, Lev 19:10) and judges their oppressors (2 Sam 22:28, Job 36:6, Is. 41:17).

The English language does not have a single word that neatly corresponds to this group of people. In contexts of justice for specific crimes, the special care afforded to these people would best align with the English concept of victim or oppressed. While oppressed has an official status in conversations of social justice, it does not have the same status in the American legal system. The word victim, however, has precisely this status, as indicated in the US Federal Government's legal registrar, "victim of crime means a person who has suffered physical, sexual, financial, or emotional harm as a result of the commission of a crime" (2016, 44518). This semantic range covers the full range of violations that עני covers in the Torah.

I have thus opted to translate עני as "victim" in this psalm. The context of each verse indicates that the people have been the "victims" of crime. My choice of this word calls legal scenes to mind for US English speakers, which would have also been activated for Hebrew speakers because of the official status of עני in the Law.

Two sound play choices

Alliteration in verses 3-4

3 When my enemies turn back,  they stumble and perish because of Your presence  4 because You upheld my cause for justice  You sat on Your throne, judging in justice.

Alliteration significantly contributes to the cohesion of these lines. Bilabial stops [p] ¹ and [b] tie 3a-4a together. At the end of 4a, "j" [dʒ] and "y" [j] ties the rest of the verse together. The repetition of three words for "judge" also ties this verse to verse 8, where the same words appear. The sound play here makes the line roll off the tongue easily.

I followed the ESV in translating פָּנֶֽי ("countenance") as "Your presence" in this verse because the [pɹ] in "presence" allowed me to emphasize the alliteration between it and the [peɹ] in "perish" just a few verses earlier. In order to be consistent with the US English legal language framework, as mentioned above, I also translated צֶֽדֶק ("righteousness") as "justice" and "in justice" in lines 4a and 4b. Keeping the “just” root has the added benefit of maintaining analogous sound plays present in the Hebrew and introducing an additional artistic flare in the US English translation. In the oral translation, "in justice" and "injustice" are indistinguishable phonologically and have equal semantic viability. God could either judge in a just way, or judge those who practice injustice. This ambiguity adds to the overall aesthetic effect for any who meditate on the oral translation.

Alliteration and end rhyme in verses 13-14

13 Lord, have mercy on me  Look at how I'm the victim of those who hate me!  14 Grab me from the gates that go down to the grave  so that I may give you public praise  in the gates that go to the city of God.

This section has the most foreign ideas for a modern English audience. We do not have “gates” for our cities, nor do we have the same concept of the “grave.” In response, I worked hard to add sonic connections between verses 13-14. The rich sonic connections help make the poetry pleasing enough that the foreign imagery does not disturb the aesthetic appeal of the poem. Notice where the lateral "L" [l] appears, what vowels the lines end with, where the velar stop [g] appears, and where the bilabial stop [p] appears. The dense network of alliteration and end rhyme in these lines makes them much more pleasing to hear.

Sources

• Craigie, Peter C., and Marvin Tate. 2004. Word Biblical Commentary: Psalms 1-50. 2nd edition. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Inc.
• Coppes, Leonard J. 1999. “1652 עָנָה.” In Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, edited by R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer Jr., and Bruce K. Waltke. Chicago: Moody Press.
• Davis, Benjamin S. “Poverty.” 2014. In Lexham Theological Wordbook, edited by Douglas Mangum, Derek R. Brown, Rachel Klippenstein, and Rebekah Hurst. Lexham Bible Reference Series. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
• de Blois, Reinier, and Enio R. Mueller. 2000-2021. “עָנִי H6041 Reinier.” In . Vol. SEMANTIC DICTIONARY OF BIBLICAL HEBREW. United Bible Societies. https://semanticdictionary.org/semdic.php?databaseType=SDBH&language=en&lemmaIndex=5036&startPage=1.
• US Federal Government. 2016. “Federal Register.” LII / Legal Information Institute 81 (131): 44515–35.