PAGE FOUR
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 19, 19511
PAGE FOUR SUNDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1952
I ____________________________________________________ U I
NMW
BOOK REVIEW:
New Bible 'Modernized'-But
Lacks Rhythm, Poetry of Old
By PROF. ALBERT K. STEVENS
of the English Dept.
THIS VOLUME has everything: action,
suspense, thrills, drama, poetry, pro-
fundity, grandeur. In its 66 books you will
find divine philosophy, the very lineaments
of God-and tedious genealogies and dull
directions for the daily life of a nomadic
desert tribe of three thousand years ago. A
little short on humor, it is nevertheless en-
tertaining. It holds one's interest and at
times fills one with the terror of infinity,
the awe that comes from contemplation of
eternity.
As offset, however, to the majesty of its
periods and the thunder of its prophecies
are the accounts of sibling rivalry, of
palace intrigues, ambuscades, revolutions,
disembowellings, of seductions, rape, in-
cest, murder-the tales of "ingenuity," of
strange births and strange deaths, of
demons, angels; the anecdotes, riddles,
puns; the visions of the "last things" that
are gsuffused with unearthly light from
the other side of reality.
Here is traced the attempt of a folk to do
the will of God over successive generations
and centuries-a narrative the equal of any
in history and certainly superior to con-
temporary sagas of family sin and decay.
Here too the tersely told life-story of the
Jewish carpenter who died young and yet
lives a figure out-topping all history. In
short, here is'something for everybody, and
your education won't be complete until
you've read it as Adler said you should read
a book: as the lover reads the loveletter,
reading the lines and between the lines.
This book has been newly translated. Many
good, men and wise have labored long and
have given us a fine new version of the old
masterpiece. It is indeed a superlative trans-
lation; in all the major divisions of analysis
of what makes one translation better than
another, the majority vote goes to the Re-
vised Standard. Though the majority may
in some instances be only a bare 51%, still
the gains, when the new version is substi-
tuted for the King James, do finally out-
weigh the losses.
But, hang it, that doesn't mean that
we shouldn't be made aware of the losses.
For one thing, we are going to lose in a
measure the sense of being linked with
past generations in our religious thoughts
and exercises. So much depends on the
use to which one means to put the Bible.
If you are going to read it liturgically, then
you'll want maximum evocation of the
history of the race In the very language
and you won't care too much for historical
accuracy. But If you want past events
recounted with scientific accuracy, then
text-book or newspaper style will serve
you better than rolling periods and anti-
que cloth-of-gold vocabulary.
The language of the King James-the
"thee's and thou's," the "-eth" verb endings,
the "and it came to pass-es," the locutions
and circumlocutions-all these are gone.
With them goes the g'orgeous tapestry-ef-
feet of English at its boldest, its superb mo-
ment. Gone too are many of the charac-
teristically Renaissance and Shakesperian
rhythms. To be sure, all honest speech and
writing has a rhythm of a kind.
In the new translation care has been de-
voted to sounds and cadences. But the new
is not the old. "And Jesus cried with a loud
voice, and gave up the ghost" has become
"And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed
his last." The exorcising of "ghost," which
gave most readers the spooks anyway, is
perhaps a gain. But look at (or listen to,
or feel in your speech organs) what has
happened to the two iambic measures of
"gave up the ghost." The new offers no
musical equivalent. Furthermore, in "cried
with a loud voice" one hears the humanism
of the Renaissance, for here is the sugges-
tion of something distinctively human-pur-
poseful and volitional, capable of spiritual
suffering. "Uttered a loud cry" is just a step
removed from the necessa;y human; it car-
ries a suggestion of automatic or merely in-
stinctive reaction.
God's question to Job: "Canst thou bind
the sweet influences of the Pleiades?" now
reads, "Can you bind the chains of the
Pleiades?" "Chains" is presumably a more
precise translation-but is not "sweet in-
fluences" more wondrously poetic in its
suggestion of spiritual energy flowing
around the constellations?
"Enter into the rock," Isaiah admonished
his contemporaries, "and hide thee in dust."
Compare the "Enter into the rock and hide
in the dust" of the new translation. The
dropping of "thee" not only flattens away
the cadence but also sacrifices the impact
of direct address to the reader.
"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the end," now reads: "I am the Alpha
and the Omega, the beginning and the end."
Inserting the definite article does indeed re-
mind one that "alpha" and "omega" are
after all the names of letters in the Greek
alphabet, but again the expression is less
melodious and the poetry less bold. ("I am
A and Z" is a more inclusive and emphatic
assertion than "I am the first and last let-
ters of the alphabet.")
ANOTHER INSTANCE of the price we pay
for progress (or "accuracy") is the com-
plete banishment of the word "Calvary" to
designate the hill on which the Crucifixion
took place. It is now "the place called "The
Skull." Just how the wonderful trisyllabic
Latin word for skull came to be adopted by
the King James translators we can only
guess. Of course there is no scientific war-
rant for its use. But think of all the hymns
using the musical "Calvary" which are now
doomed to oblivion! High time some were,
of course. But in my home town the Cal-
vary Baptist church shelters a literal mind-
ed flock. Will Place of the Skull Baptist
Church be an improvement?
I suppose one could go on indefinitely
in this carping vein-all to the misleading
of those who read book reviews but not
.the books. The gains in the new trans-
lation are many and real. Hundreds of
puzzlers have been liquidated. "One jot
or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the
law," is now an intelligible "not an iota,
not a' dot will pass." The new translation
can always be depended on to make sense
(of some kind at any rate) 'of the free-
wheeling syntax of the King James men.
One suspects that when the earlier trans-
lators came across anything in the ori-
ginal which was beyond their linguistic
equipment or was really a garbled pas-
sage in the original, they turned it into
Elizabethan fustian without batting an
eye.
These portentous pieces of near nonsense
now yield meaning in a fashion which must
encourage the Flesch school of easy-to-
read-ers. Of Job's Leviathan it was said
that "when he raiseth up himself, the
mighty are afraid." The King James goes
on: "by reason of breakings they purify
themselves." Your guess at the meaning was
as good as the next one's. The new trans-
lation reads: "at the crashing they are be-
side themselves." That the mighty should
be beside themselves wtih fear at the crash-
ing approach of the dragon makes sense.
In Isaiah's passage on the giddy women
of Jerusalem, "crisping-pins" have become
"handbags; "stomachers" are "rich robes."
You may not relish the mingling of piety
with a herdsman's hopes for a big crop of
calves, but the new version of Psalm 144:14
-"May our cattle be heavy with young, suf-
fering no mischance or failure in bearing,"
makes sense where the King James leaves
only a puzzle: "That our oxen may be strong
to labour; that there be no breaking in, nor
going out."
And now for an exquisitely appropriate
closing line for a piece in a campus news-
paper-and incidentally one more demon-
stration of the thesis that translations can
always be improved. Compare, then, the
King James version of Ecclesiastes with the
Revised Standard:
"The words of the wise are as goads, and
as nails fastened by the masters of assem-
blies, which are given from one shepherd.
And further, by these, my son, be ad-
monished: of making many books there is
no end; and much study is a weariness
of the flesh."
"The sayings of the wise are like goads,
and like nails firmly fixed are the collected
sayings which are given by one Shepherd.
My son, beware of anything beyond these.
Of making many books there is no end, and
much study is a weariness of the flesh."
DREW PEARSON:
Washington
Merry-Go-Round
WASHINGTON-Stevenson headquarters
has been trying hard to bring Senator
Russell of Georgia into the campaign. Ste-
venson personally tried to phone Russell in
Venezuela last month. But Russell was on
board ship and the call never got through.
Later, Stevenson's campaign manager,
Wilson Wyatt, talked to Russell by trans-
oceanic phone, but got nowhere. Finally,
Stevenson's new political trouble-shooter,
Senator Fubright of Arkansas, reached
Russell in Washington.
But the Georgia Senator tried to drive a
bargain. He wanted Stevenson to change his
mind on filibusters and, in effect, O.K. the
Southern Senate filibuster before he would
agree to deliver a speech.
DEFENSE OF, EUROPE
GENERAL RIDGWAY has kept his mouth
shut, but he found no supply system or
master plan for evacuation for his European
army when he took over from General Eis-
enhower at NATO.
Every available soldier had been press-
ed into a fighting division, andthe supply
was left up to the individual nations. In
case of war, Ridgway reported, this hodge-
podge system would be absolutely useless.
He also found that Eisenhower had fail-
ed to prepare a master plan evacuation in
case the Russians couldn't be stopped. This
meant that a retreating army would either
be stranded or forced to improvise its re-
treat as it went.
World War II experience also taught
that the evacuation roads would be hope-
lessly clogged with refugees, unless there
was some plan to handle them.
Ridgway has cabled the Pentagon for
more troops in order to build a military sup-
ply system. But his no. 2 man in NATO,
Field Marshal Montgomery, is in favor of
cutting down the number of fighting divi-
sions in order to organize a supply corps
immediately.
* : * *
WORDS THAT come back to haunt you:
Here is what GOP Senator Knowland, who
beamed on Ike in California last week, said
Sept. 14, 150, about putting military men,
including Eisenhower, in civilian positions:
"I am against a change because it re-
futes our basic law which says that the
military department shall have civilian
heads. Historically, the American people
have stood for and supported the prin-
ciple that the military shall be subordi-
nated to the civilian.
I favor that principle. (He was opposing a
law by which Gen. Marshall would be per-
mitted to become Secretary of Defense.) "I
would object just as vigorously if the Presi-
dent had proposed that the law be changed
to appoint General Dwight Eisenhower."
* . *
CAPITAL NEWS CAPSULES
IKE VS. DICK-Friction has broken out
between the Eisenhower and Nixon cli-
ques at Republican national headquarters.
National Chairman Summerfield wants to
put Nixon on coast-to-coast television once
a week. But Eisenhower's political chief,
Governor Sherman Adams of New Hamp-
shire, argues that Ike is the star and Nixon
should keep In the background.
CANADIAN A-BOMB?-Prime Minister
Churchill is secretly urging Canada to fol-
low Britain's example and explode her
own atomic bomb. This, he believes, would
show the United States the foolishness of
keeping atomic secrets away from its
friends. The Canadian cabinet has not
decided whether to do this and risk hurt-
ing its close friendship with the United
States. However, Canada does have the
know-how to explode an atomic bomb
anytime it wants to.
EUROPE WATCHES ELECTIONS - Re-
ports from U.S. diplomats abroad say that
Europe, especially the French and British,
are getting jittery over the American elec-
tions. The violence of the campaign oratory
has made foreigners fear the United States
will be hopelessly split after November.
French, British, and Italians are bitterly
disappointed over Eisenhower and his new-
found isolation.
RUSSIAN VS. RUSSIAN-Jacob Malik,
Russia's famous UN delegate, is disgusted
with Valerie Zorin, sent by Moscow to re-
place him. Malik has told Zorin he'd better
put more oomph into his anti-American
speeches if he wants to stay on. But Zorin
doesn't believe in table-pounding and has
flatly refused to listen to Malik's advice.
The two Russians have argued so much that
they are hardly speaking to each other.
BLUEPRINT FOR VICTORY
IN THE WAKE of General Eisenhower's
whistle-stopping, his political crew has
left behind a blueprint for winning the in-
dependent and Democratic vote.
Local GOP leaders, when herded on
and off the campaign train, were handed
a confidential, 33-page manual for or-
ganizing Eisenhower-Nixon clubs.
As a sample, the manual urges the local
Republicans to "choose a man of civic pro-
minence" as club chairman.
"Since the purpose of the clubs is to
swing independent and Democratic voters
into voters for Eisenhower," the booklet
explains, "try to get a chairman who is
somewhat outside politics and who is not
stamped as a dyed-in-the-wool Republi-
can."
The manual also recommends "that a
special bank account be opened by the treas-
urer for the local organization. All funds
shonul he receive h the trenue.a nn al
An Artist's Suggestion
"Sic 'Im, Checkers"
* 'AA
A
THE WEEK'S NEWS
IN RETROSPECT
Local...
ALTHOUGH A TAFT CLUB debt of $146.03 was revealed and the
second congressional district candidates debated, it was the Pro-
gressives who crept under the local political spotlight last week.
Their attempt to hold a rally featuring Progressive presidential
candidate Vincent Hallinan and party co-chairman Paul Robeson was
temporarily blocked when the Masons rejected their request for use
of the Masonic Temple. After spending several days complaining to
Circuit Court Judge Breakey that the Masons had broken their al-
ledged contract, the left-wingers' day was saved when Mayor Brown
Thursday granted them the use of the West Side Park for the rally
which was held yesterday.
OPEN LISTS-Campus Young Progressives were not so lucky,
however. With only one dissenting vote, the Student Affairs Com-
mittee rescinded a 1948 ruling allowing campus political clubs to
keep their membership lists secret. The YP's, who have been the
only club requesting secrecy, optimistically predicted no drop in
their membership as a result of the ruling.
RE-EVALUATING-In the midst of debates over legislative effi-
ciency and discussions of possible reorganizing, Student Legislature de-
cided Wednesday to postpone presentation to the Regents of its Lec-
ture Committee recommendation passed last spring and to set up a
committee to consider and re-evaluate SL's stand on the issue.
The motion, passed by a slim 19-17 margin, raised doubts wheth-
er any major Lecture Committee changes would get through the Re-
gents this year. The "limited goals" people appeared to be winning
the day.
* * * *
RISE STEVENS-Local culture enthusiasts also had their day
last week. Glamorous Metropolitan Opera star Rise Stevens captivated
_ _____ _:a_ rif...A.«..,.. . ....n.r .n~ i {1ihtr by iTG
Political Round-up
CLOSE ON THE heels of his Democratic adversary, Gen. Eisenhower
paid his respects to Dixie this week. The Republican presidential
aspirant drew one of his biggest crowds in New Orleans. More than
15,000 people turned out to hear the Republican tell the South that
they have received a "shoddy deal'". from the Truman Administration.
Newsmen estimated the crowd as far exceeding that which Gov. Stev-
enson received in the same city a few days ago.
Visiting the Lone Star State for the fourth time, Eisenhower cele-
brated his birthday in the midst of campaign speeches to the Texans.
* * * *
MEANWHILE, IKE'S running mate, Dick Nixon, ate birthday cake
in the mid-west. After a major address in Detroit, Nixon treated 3,500
Ann Arborites to a glimpse of his well-known wife, Pat, and GOP
state big wigs. Nixon told the local audience that the United States
has lost its military supremacy due to the bungling of the Truman
administration.
Gov. Stevenson headed towards the West Coast. In a speech at
Salt Lake City, the Democrat accused Ike of chanting the theme
song of the Kremlin in contending that America's prosperity is
based on war and rearmament.
In San Francisco, the Governor took another blast at his opponent,
charging that Eisenhower has rounded up a team of "isolationists and
cut-throat reactionaries," quarterbacked by Sen. Robert A. Taft.
At the end of the week neither candidate was greeted with open
arms. Speaking in the East, Eisenhower failed to draw responsive
crowds. In the uncertain state of Texas, Stevenson found his ground
slipping.
a near capacity Hill audience in a performance higiign o ye y -
man lieders and an encore aria from Carmen. With another week of campaign stints over, the election still re-
* * * mains an enigma. Political experts shrug their shoulders and point
SEVEN-SEMESTER RECORD-Fraternities were breathing eas- the number of undecided voters. Pollsters rate the 'independents'
ier last week. When the results of their bi-annual shot in the arm as comprising almost 50 per cent of the voting population.
were tabulated, it was discovered that 506 men, 60 per cent of the
rushees, had pledged 41 houses. --Mike Wolff -Alice Bogdonoff
cLellen to (l e &dilor
Ask for Mary ...
To the Editor:
WITH ELECTION time so near,
I would like to urge that every
student in the University get out
and at least spend 2 or 3 hours in
"Practical Political Science." Un-
til we get out of the classroom and.
see the hard, driving, and some-
times exasperating efforts of both
parties, we can't fully understand
our political process. Too many
people think of the campaign as a
series of speeches and party ral-
lies without realizing all the work
at the grass roots level.
As a member of Students for
Stevenson, I say that everyone can
help at the local level. We need
volunteers badly. If any students
would be interested in giving us
2 or 3 hours, their time would be
well spent both from their stand-
point of participating actively in
a campaign and in helping to elect
our candidate.
Please, if you have any free time,
call 20604 and ask for Mary any
evening.
--Mary Oppenheim
.4* *
MaSoniC Bait .
To the Editor:
MARK READER'S editorial in
the Daily of Oct. 16 concerning
the "Masonic ban" is. in error on
a point which seems important
enough to demand a correction.
Mr. Reader states that between
Sept. 28, when the Mason's Board
of Supervisors told us that Paul
Robeson's appearance was unwel-
come, and Oct. 8, when the Board
formally denied us the use of the
Temple, the Progressive Party did
not look for an alternate meeting
r - manT i i ac ZR a a- -li a
to understand by Prof. Glenn Alt,
chairman of the Board, that this
was still a distinct possibility. A fa-
vorable decision by the Board
would have allowed us to hold our
meeting without public dispute. We
believe any political party should
be able to do this. Perhaps Mr.
Reader considers we were naive in
hoping the Masons would agree;
but we maintain that if they had
done so they would have served
better the already embattled cause
of free speech in Ann Arbor.
-Prof. John Shepard, J. Cecil
Rutherford, David R. Luce"
for the Progressive Party of
Washtenaw County
* * *
Now, Now, Nimz.. .
To the Editor:
MISS PEG NIMZ better stick
to writing funny stories. As a
comedian she's a scream . . as a
person she's wonderful . . . as an
interpreter of University rules
she's not too good. This is to in-
form all those who are interested
that there is no effective rule of
the University banning political
speakers from the campus. There
is a rule that has from time to
time been enforced that no speak-
ers who "advocate the violent
overthrow of the government"
may speak here. Thus it was and
still would be entirely proper to
have such a figure as Senator
Taft here to speak on campus. Aft-
er the Republican Convention was
held and Senator Taft lost the
nomination it became very diffi-
cult to raise money on his behalf.
However, with good conscience I
and all the other former members
of the Taft for President Club will
do our best to raise the 146 dollars
that is still outstanding to the Uni-
versity.
I hope this will clarify any fu-
+ - rminyoin _*+t --,rn _
and pouring it on. I will try to
help.
(1) A falsehood is a lie.
(2) A smear is a damaging1
statement, made with intent to de-
ceive. While most smears are lies,
some of them are not. For example,
if you say that Bertrand Russell
is a former jail-bird, you are
smearing Russell with an accurate
statement: he spent a few months
in jail for opposing World War I.
(3) Pouring it on is a procedure
whereby you embarrass your op-
ponent by merciless repetition of
the shocking truth. Mr. Truman's
whistle-stop speeches are an excel-
lent example of this.
Many people blame Mr. Tru-
man for the strong tone of his
speeches. It seems to me that this
is putting the blame in the wrong
place. He is talking about the Re-
publican record in general, and
about the current Republican cam-
paign in particular; and the plain
facts on these matters are so
shocking that any accurate state-
ment of them is likely to sound
violent, intemperate and extreme.
-Edwin E. Moise
Marxist Club .
To the Editor;
I HAVE NOT yet recovered from
the shock brought on by an ar-
ticle printed in last Wednesday's
Daily. It seems that a bunch of
rabble rousing radicals have em-
barked upon the formation of a
Karl Marx Society. And the, Ad-
ministration hasn't lifted one fin-
ger to stop them!
Do we want these subversive in-
dividuals infiltrating our campus."
Surely the Lecture Committee can
do something. What will our alum-
ni think if they hear about these
"red" activities? Some may discon-
tinue their endowments and alas
al Michigan students, must take
the bear by the ears and convince
our alumni, the -Foundation,
the-Foundation, the-Foun-
dation, and the State Legislature
that most of us are patriotic, hard
working, honest Americans.
Let's all get together and form
an Adam Smith Society.
-E. Sterling Sader
I
r
UEE
At The State...
BACK AT THE FRONT, with Ton Ew-
ell and Harvey Lembeck.
ACCORDING TO the marquee, Joe and
Willie are "back at the front," but it
could as easy have been Jake and Louie or
Pete and Harry, for any lineal descendancy
these men have with the Mauldin war car-
toon characters. For that matter, "Joe" and
"Willie" also fail to get bacK to the front
which prevents the chance that any enemy
sniper can mercifully save the characters
frn i~whn+ nfl~lc Af f n" i l A +_^e
have been stretched even to the length of
a cartoon strip.
It was lyric; he had it all in that In-
stant.
To the movie-makers, however, Joe and
Willie have become devices. In the first "Up
Front" picture, the script writers moved the
characters laboriously from one of Mauldin's
cartoon panels to another. But, at least,
the characters were not completely stereo-
typed. In this chapter, they harden into the
Hollywood version of the "sad sack" very
quickly and there is nothing left for them
afterwards but medium dull Tokyo travel-
ogue and very dull espionage slapstick.
Sixty-Third Year
Edited and managed by students of
the University of Michigan under the
authority of the Board in Control of
Student Publications.
Editorial Staff
Crawford Young. ..Managing Editor
Cal Samra.........Editorial Director
Zander Hollander.......Feature Editor
Sid Klaus........Associate City Editor
Harland Britz.........Associate Editor
Donna Hendleman ....Associate Editor
Ed Whipple...... ......Sports Editor
John Jens....Associate Sports Editor
Dick~ Sewell..Associate Sports Editor
Lorraine Butler....... Women's Editor
Mary Jane Mills, Assoc. Women's Editor
Business Staff
Al Green ............ Business Manager
Milt Goetz.......Advertising Manager
Diane Johnston ..Assoc. Business Mgr.
Judy Loehnberg... Finance Manager
Tom Treeger......Circulation Manager
4