72 Friday, December 10, 1976
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
-David Rosenberg Attains a High Translator's Role
for Works on the Psalms and Other Biblical Themes
A high rank as poet and
translator has been ac-
quired by David Rosen-
berg, native Detroiter,
whose renditions of the
Psalms and subsequent
works on other Bible
themes are gaining
widest recognition and
praise.
When he first wrote his
translations of the
Psalms the several that
were published in The
Detroit Jewish News
drew wide attention and
_ gave the author a place of
honor among contempor-
ary translators.
Now his translations of
the Psalms, published by
Harper and Row as
"Blues of the Sky," are
acclaimed as major poetic
achievements.
His translations are ex-
pressive and powerful. His
23rd Psalm, for example,
commences:
"The Lord is my
shepherd and keeps me
from wanting what I
can't have . . . "
Twenty of the Psalms
appear in "Blues of the
Sky" in his versions and
Psalm 130 is exemplary:
Psalm 130
deep• in myself, Lord
I'm crying
I'm calling you
hear this voice, Lord
find me in your ears
the mercy of your
attention
as it looks through
the shell
of my selfishness
if you see only
vain impulses
marking the body's surface
the lines in the face
then there is no one
who'd hold up his head
but you allow us
forgiveness
allow a song
coming through us
to you
as I call to you
as I rely on these words
as I wait
for you
more certain than dawn
through the steady ticking
till morning
wait, Israel
even when watches
seem to stop
My Lord comes to me
in a rush of love
setting my heart free
into a bright sky
we are lightened
in the mercy of his
attention.
- DAVID ROSENBERG
anger and which is usually
translated as if it was. I
suddenly realized it was
not anger at all but an in-
tense depression, a self-
conscious awareness of
failure.
The psalmist was facing
depression and not allow-
ing himself to respond
with bitterness. Instead,
even as his voice speaks
bitterly, he overcomes de- ,
spair with his song's urge
toward lightness. Its for-
mal repetitiveness paral-
lels the strength of his
faith in a higher being
whose ear he approaches
as he listens to himself.
There is a noteworthy
tribute to Rosenberg's
translations in this com-
ment on his works by the
eminent Jewish scholar,
Dr. Robert Gordis:
"Translation is a dif-
ficult art, the practice of
which is strewn with pit-
I gm drowning
To his translations and
versions, Rosenberg has
appended a scholarly af-
terword, "On Translating
the Psalms," in which he
states that: "These ver-
sions are an offspring of
modern biblical
scholarship which has
thrown new light on early
Hebrew language."
His essay shows the in-
spiration of the Bible, the
effect of language, the
importance of transla-
tions and he concludes:
In modern poetry, I
learned a sophisticated
equivalent of the blues
from the work of Gertrude
Stein. She explored the
psycological effects of re-
petition and demonstrated
the spirit that links poetry,
meditation, and liturgy.
Her example shattered a
fashionable cynicism,
helping to establish the
positive discipline of a
head-on, self-effacing con-
frontation with the most
serious qualities of light-
ness. The thoroughness of
her experiments were also
an inspiration for me to
plunge deeper into biblical
studies.
When I started to work
on the psalms, I didn't
want to go too deeply into
tiblical research, I didn't
want to wrestle with the
broader context of authen-
ticity. I was satisfied my
versions were little trans-
lation experiments.
My personal awareness
of the psalms as liturgy
overtook me while I was
translating one that I
thought was written in
•
falls. This truth has been
recognized in every cul-
ture. The Italian proverb
traditore tradutore de-
clares that every trans-
lator is a betrayer of his
original text.
"A Talmudic statement
insists that whoever re-
nders a verse literally is a
falsifier. Ideally, the task
of a translator is to make
himself invisible, to com-
municate to the reader of
his translation the emo-
tional impact and idea-
- tional content that the
readers of the original
text derived from their
reading.
"The Bible, undoub-
tedly the most translated
work in history, offers the
most striking evidence of
the perennial challenge
and limitless perils in-
volved in the translator's
task. This explains the
constant succession of
translations of the Scrip-
tures that continue to ap-
pear.
"David Rosenberg, in
his book "Blues of The
Sky, Interpreted From the
Original Hebrew Book of
Psalms," offers us not a
translation but a transmu-
tation. He has sought to
capture in contemporary
English idiom the emo-
tional impact and concep-
tual content of the Hebrew
original by recasting the
text in terms of the figures
of speech and the experi-
ence of modern men and
women.
"Being a poet of power
and originality, Rosen-
berg is often able to give
the ancient Psalms a di-
rectness and immediacy
that would have de-
lighted the original au-
thors and that goes far
beyond the power of the
best translation to
achieve.
"He thus succeeds in
making the Psalms come
alive, not as an ancient
work of undeniable power
and beauty, but as a vivid
expression of contempor-
ary human experience,
with its doubts, its fears
and its hopes."
David Rosenberg is the
son of Mrs. Shifra Rosen-
berg of Southfield and of
the late Herman Rosen-
berg who was among the
active leaders here in
Cong. Bnai Moshe and in
numerous Detroit com-
munal ranks. A graduate
of the University of
Michigan, where he won
the Hopwood Award for
his poems, Rosenberg
earned his MA at Syra-
cuse University. He has
also completed a transla-
tion of the "Book of Job"
and is working in other
translations of the
Prophets.
Important 'New Translation
Os Publishes Illustrated Collection of Psalms
One of Israel's greatest
gifts to mankind -- the
Psalms — remains the in-
spiration to poets and
thinkers of all ages, all
languages, all faiths.
The Jewish Publication
Society now gets an addi-
tional mark of honor for
services, to Jewry-in liter-
ary and artistic creativ-
ity. It is the new edition of
"Tehilim -- The Psalms."
In a new translation,
supervised by a committee
consisting of Moshe
Greenberg, Jonas Green-
field, Saul Leeman, Martin
Rozenberg, Nahum Sarna
and David Shapiro, the
new edition, limited to 750
copies, is marked by the
fascination provided by
the 58 unusual drawings
by the eminent artist and
designer, Ismar David.
The accompanying re-
productions of the
noteworthy drawings
provide introductory ap-
preciation of the immen-
sity of this work.
The committee of trans-
lators had this important
comment in the preface,
defining the manner in
which the translation
was tackled and, the
wealth of inspiration de-
fin
"This English render-
ing of Psalms, the com-
mittee's first work,- is a
new version, not a revi-
sion of an earlier transla-
tion. It is based on the re-
ceived (Masoretic) Heb-
rew text — its conson-
ants, vowels, and syntac-
tical divisions, although
on occasion the tradi-
tional accentuation has
been disregarded in favor
of an alternative con-
struction of a verse that
appeared to yield a better
sense. Such departures
from the accentuation
were made by many ear-
lierJewish commentators
and translators.
"The entire gamut of
Psalms interpretation,
from ancient to modern
times, Jewish and non-
Jewish, has been con-
sulted. The results of mod-
ern study of the languages
and cultures of the ancient
Near East have been
brought to bear on the bi-
blical word wherever pos-
sible. In judging between
alternatives, however, just
as antiquity was not in it-
self a disqualification, so
modernity was not in itself
a recommendation. When
the present translation di-
verges from recent re-
nderings (as it frequently
does), this is due as much
to the committee's judg-
ment that certain innova-
tions, though interesting,
are too speculative for
adoption in the present
state of knowledge, as to
its commitment to the re-
ceived Hebrew text (a
commitment not made by
most-recent translations).
"For many passages,
our as yet imperfect un-
derstanding of the lan-
guage of the Bible or
what appears to be some
disorder in the Hebrew
text makes sure transla-
tion impossible. The
committee's uncertainty
is indicated in a marginal
note, and alternative re-
nderings have sometimes
been offered where the
Hebrew permits them.
However, emendations of
the text have not been
proposed. Marginal anno-
tations have been kept to
a minimum since a com-
panion volume of
explanatory notes is in
preparation."
The style and terminol-
ogy is similarly defined by
the translators who point
out:
"The style of the trans-
lation is, on the whole,
modern literary English.
An effort has been made
to retain the imagery of
the Hebrew rather than
to render it by English
equivalents and approx-
imations alien to the bi-
blical world.
"Consistency in render-
ing Hebrew terms was an
aim but not an unqualified
rule. Where its employ-
ment would have resulted
in encumbered or awk-
ward language it was
abandoned. On the other
hand, within a given
psalm, key or thematic
words and phrases were,
as far as possible, re-
ndered consistently. Re-
petition of key or thematic
terms is an element of
'structure and composition
in the psalms; its rep-
resentation is one of the
proper tasks of a trans-
lator. Terms having many
values, such as hesed and
tzedek (in the King James
version, -- "mercy/
lovingkindness" and
"righteousness") posed a
problem. In order to do
justice to their wide range,
a variety of renderings de-
termined by the various
contexts had to be
employed. Here consis-
tency was neither possible
nor desirable."
Thus the Jewish Publi-
cation Society, pursuing
the task begun 15 years
ago for ,revisions of the
translations of the Scrip-
tures, has added another
gem to the valuable col-
lection of literaty, tradi-
tional and artistic pro-
ducts of the nationally
functioning non-profit
publishing house.
(See Commentary, Page 2)
The Jewish Publication Society's new edition of "Tehilim — the Psalms" includes -
a total of 58 illustrations by Ismar David. Pictured at left is a drawing depicting Psalm
88:15, "Why, 0 Lord, do You reject me?" At right, the illustration depicts Psalm 23:1,
"The Lord is my shepherd."