This really helped me understand the Psalms, reading each psalm again after reading the commentary to each one really helped me make sense of them (evThis really helped me understand the Psalms, reading each psalm again after reading the commentary to each one really helped me make sense of them (even basic stuff like telling you which verses are the voice of the psalmist, God or the psalmists enemy which helped a lot).
The translator has avoided words which have later religious connotations (like Salvation which he translates as rescue as the Psalmists were not referring to being "saved" in a spiritual sense but from physical dangers like being killed by enemies or from illness). He tries to avoid abstract words and use more physical ones, in keeping with the original tone of Hebrew language, for example translating nefesh as neck (it's literal meaning) rather than soul, although when I compared one Psalm in the NRSV (63) which has the physical sounding "my flesh faints for you" suggesting physical exhaustion from lack of water, Alter replaces "faints" with "yearns" but presumably there is a reason he chose to translate it that way (not explained in the footnotes).
The commentaries concentrate on the psalms as works of poetry rather than religious texts and he explains things like the structure of the poem and alliteration. He also has many comments on the difficulties of translating the text, pointing out possible scribal errors, for example how changing one letter of a word can turn a phrase that doesn't make sense back into something intelligible.
This is a beautiful book in every sense. The fascinating story of how Rumi met Shams really captured my imagination. I didn't really understand most oThis is a beautiful book in every sense. The fascinating story of how Rumi met Shams really captured my imagination. I didn't really understand most of the poetry, the allusions and metaphors went over my head so a study guide to explain what they mean would be useful....more
I read the SPCK 2017 edition ISBN: 9780281077076 translated by Grace Warrack and modernised by Yolande Clarke with an introduction by A. N. Wilson
The I read the SPCK 2017 edition ISBN: 9780281077076 translated by Grace Warrack and modernised by Yolande Clarke with an introduction by A. N. Wilson
The first half is quite gory (visions of the Passion) but gets better. Some parts were more interesting and easy to follow than others but there are some profound insights in the book....more
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