Translation and the Scottish Psalter
[Trivia: which advertising mascots/characters have been played and/or voiced by . . .
Gilbert Gottfried, Daniel McKeague
Robert Downey Jr., Bill Hader
John Goodman, J.K. Simmons
Jake Stone (2011-2020), Kevin Miles (2020-now)
Jonathan Goldsmith (2006-2016), Augustin Legrand (2016-now)
(Some of these acting choices aren’t well known, but the mascots/characters themselves all are.)]
Languages are really different. I’ve opined before about how languages are constrained by the vocabulary of having words with specific definitions only for some such definitions—e.g., Hebrew, Arabic, and Spanish all have words for a ditch that is home to a stream in the rainy season but a dry valley otherwise, but English doesn’t. That also doesn’t get into the constraints of word order, double meanings, wordplay, or anything to do with cadence, syllabification, alliteration, even onomatopoeia.
This makes every translation a specific act. You prioritize some things and leave others to the wayside. A good translation is therefore not the most literal rendering or the most readable one, but one which, having cleared all baselines of competence, understands its priorities and cleaves to them throughout. A translation for any kind of serious study should be more literal; a rendering of something to create poetry in the receiving language, like Alexander Pope’s Iliad, is going to be a lot looser and should not be understood by the reader to represent all of Homer’s personal ideas.
Obviously this is an issue with the parts of the Bible, and there are many, that are poetry. Then again, if you read a verse translation of the Psalms, you probably don’t have the mindset of trying to clarify doctrine and explore logical connections the way you might when you’re reading a letter like Ephesians. Therefore, the pitfalls of ahem rearranging the text to fit an English verse scheme, to say nothing of rhyming, are practically speaking pretty tiny.
Pursuant to that, if you’ve ever wanted a more poetic and flowing experience of the Psalms than a more literal translation suited for serious study (like the ESV) lends itself towards, I recommend the 1650 Scottish Psalter. (It’s called Scottish as a matter of national origin, not language.) Every Psalm is expressed in ballad meter, with an ABCB rhyme scheme (that has often survived the centuries, although not quite always).
The entire text can be found online; as an example, here’s the familiar Psalm 150, one of the more overtly musical ones rendered in a way that sounds more musical than many that are found in full-length translations.
Praise ye the Lord. God’s praise within
his sanctuary raise;
And to him in the firmament
of his pow’r give ye praise.
Because of all his mighty acts,
with praise him magnify:
O praise him, as he doth excel
in glorious majesty.
Praise him with trumpet’s sound; his praise
with psaltery advance:
With timbrel, harp, stringed instruments,
and organs, in the dance.
Praise him on cymbals loud; him praise
on cymbals sounding high.
Let each thing breathing praise the Lord.
Praise to the Lord give ye.
~
Answer:
Gilbert Gottfried, Daniel McKeague: the Aflac duck
Robert Downey Jr., Bill Hader: Mr. Peanut
John Goodman, J.K. Simmons: The Yellow M&M
Jake Stone (2011-2020), Kevin Miles (2020-now): “Jake from State Farm”
Jonathan Goldsmith (2006-2016), Augustin Legrand (2016-now): “The Most Interesting Man in the World.”