Translation Joys, Translation Woes
| July 26, 2017W e should all be grateful that King David did not have an editor or copyreader — though they perform an invaluable service — when he wrote his Tehillim/Book of Psalms. In particular do I refer to Psalm 130:6 in which David commits what some naifs consider an unpardonable literary sin: He repeats a phrase: “Nafshi laShem mishomrim laboker shomrim laboker” freely translated as: “My soul yearns for the L-rd more than watchmen yearn for the morning yearn for the morning.” The copyreader would scribble a stern note on the manuscript: Honorable King: No need to say twice “yearn for the morning.”
This Psalm 130 has only eight verses and 54 words but they come straight from King David’s heart and deeply penetrate our hearts. Part of its power lies in its cardinal stylistic malefaction — the repetition of that phrase in verse 6. That verse loses much in translation but one must try. This verse has only six words. In its spare lean unadorned Hebrew it says literally: “My soul to the L-rd more than watchmen to the morning more than watchmen to the morning.” In clearer English with inserted words in brackets it says: “My soul [yearns for] the L-rd more than watchmen [yearn for] the morning [yearn for] the morning.”
Translations vary: The Jewish Publication Society ignores the repetition and renders: “My soul waits for the L-rd more than they that watch for the morning expect the morning.” This is fine and serviceable but it transforms the poetry into something prosaic and ordinary. By ignoring the repetition JPS radically reduces its unique power.
ArtScroll is an improvement: “I yearn for my L-rd among those longing for the dawn longing for the dawn.” This retains the doubling and the poignancy of the phrase.
The Feldheim Eis Ratzon translation also wisely retains the repetition: “My soul longs for the L-rd more than those who long for the dawn long for the dawn.” (Full disclosure: I edited that translation.)
And the classic King James Bible has: “My soul waiteth for the L-rd more than they that watch for the morning; I say More than they that watch for the morning ” which quite appropriately emphasizes the doubling by inserting that imaginative “I say.”
Somehow a night of crisis is more difficult than a day of crisis. Night is darkness and gloom; daylight is joy and expectation. The first light the approach of dawn the rising of the sun with its light and warmth helps ease the fears and trepidations of the night. To double the expression of yearning is to double the sense of hopeful and impatient waiting. But there is a problem: The Hebrew does not say “dawn ” which is shachar. It says boker which is clearly “morning.” In English however longing or yearning for the dawn with its image of night giving way to daybreak of darkness slowly becoming light is much more evocative than yearning for the morning. And Rashi adds to the Psalm’s resonance by suggesting that boker refers to the ultimate redemption — appropriate for this Tishah B’Av season.
Only 54 words but filled with translation challenges. Where does the Psalm say anything about yearning or longing or waiting? Nowhere. The translator supplies this on his own. Any one of the three will do but who can say for certain? It could be “cleaves” or “hungers for” or “wishes for.”
As for shomrim is it literally “watchmen” who wait for the dawn or might it be anyone who anxiously awaits the dawn? The ambiguity of the Hebrew lends even greater power to the verse: Perhaps it is a combination of yearns and waits and wants and cleaves and hungers for. Perhaps it is watchmen or perhaps anyone who cannot wait until the morning. All this is left open in a deliberate vagueness in this mini-Psalm that is so large and multihued.
A very learned non-Jewish professor once said to me “It was worth spending years learning Hebrew just to be able to read this Psalm in the original and to savor its phrasing.” Someone else once said: “Reading in translation is like kissing a lovely baby through a washcloth.”
The moral of the story: Appreciate and savor good translations but it’s best to learn Biblical Hebrew. It’s best to learn Biblical Hebrew. (Originally featured in Mishpacha Issue 670)
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