Poetry Page

My musings on translating ancient religious poetry

Debbie Mayhew Zufall

Poetry translation is complicated, because a poem in a second language is often so different from the original, that it can be considered a new poem. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Some of the most successful translations of religious poetry into English are found in the 1611”Authorized Version” of the Holy Bible, also commonly called “The King James Version.” The poetic books, especially The Book of Psalms, shine especially brightly in the KJV, a translation that is generally considered one of the great landmarks in the history of the English language.

Each language has its own distinctive color and beauty. When I listen to the Psalms in Hebrew, I have a different feeling than when I read them in my King James Bible, or listen to metrical versions in French by Goudimel or Bourgeois. They are all beautiful, each in their own way. Similarly, when I read a secular poem in a dual language book, I can appreciate the beauty of the original language (which I can usually pronounce better than I can understand) while using the English as a crutch.

There are many different kinds of translations. There are literal translations that you would find, for example, in an interlinear Greek/English New Testament. Most good, idiomatic translations do not sound like translations, and can stand alone as separate poems. The translation business represents a continuum, from conservative to liberal. Most, but not, all Bible translations, tend to err on the side of conservatism. On the opposite end are translators, like Robert Bly, whose own voice frequently interacts with the original poet so much that it seems as if they are singing a duet.  My experience with Bly’s translations is that I either love them or hate them, depending on the poem. It was while pulling my hair out over his translations of a poem from Rilke’s Das Buch der Bilder that I undertook my first poetry translation.

It was a laborious work, as it had been many years since I had studied German in college, but with the original text, together with a German dictionary and Bly’s translation, I was able to create an English version that reflected my own understanding of the poem. What I discovered, is that the best way to read a poem in a foreign language is to translate it yourself. Great poetry, by its nature, is not the stuff of speed-reading, and the longer you take with a poem, the more it yields. As each poem is open to multiple interpretations (and there is no one “correct” one) you can read the same poem repeatedly, and hear something new each time.

Notes on my translations from St. Hildegard

My translations of poetry by Hildegard Van Bingen are based on the literal translations by Barbara Newman, published in her book Hildegard of Bingen Symphonia. Ms. Newman also provides poetic translations as well, but she is a musicologist, not a poet, and I decided to translate a few of them, aiming for a more poetic English version. My translations are close to the original text, which is written in Hildegard’s peculiar version of twelfth century Latin.

St. Hildegard was a German Abbess of phenomenal talent. She was a first rate composer, poet, and artist, theologian, and healer. She was famous in her day, published volumes of her own distinctive theology, as well as medical treatises, concerning the medicinal uses of herbs. She was also a visionary, who believed that her music came from a celestial source. The three antiphons I translated are from her set of sixty-five chants called “Symphony of the Harmony of Celestial Revelations.” This symphony begins with the words “O strength of eternity” and ends with “come into the palace of the King.”

Hildegard’s poetry is unique, and reflects her personal understanding of spiritual maters. Her music is monophonic, which means that it is one single melody, and is considered to be in the category of Gregorian chant.  Her melodies are wondrously complex, original, and timeless. As all ancient poetry was sung, reading the words without the music is leaves half the poem behind. Still, I believe that, just as the poetry in the Bible, Hildegard’s poetry is good enough to stand on its own, without the music.

Notes on my meditations from the Old Testament

My poetry translations from Psalm 4 and Job 23 are more meditations than translations. It is an example of a new way to read the scriptures, delving deeper each time into their bottomless source of inspiration. I wrote these four years ago. Perhaps if I were writing them now, I would write entirely different poems, as ones understanding of holy write tends to change and develop over time.  

The Book of Psalms has long been one of my favorite books, a place where I have gone countless times for consolation, so I am not surprised that I wrote, “Safe in God’s lullaby” at the end of the poem based on Psalm 4:6-8. I am surprised that I wrote “I am afraid because he has blinded me/ and I can still see in the dark” at the end of the Job 23 translation. I did not know at the time I wrote this that I might eventually go blind. Fortunately, my disease is very slow moving, and there are surgical options at the end of the tunnel. At one time or another, we are all forced to contemplate the “why to bad things happen to good people” question. Here, when Job bewails the injustice intrinsic in the human condition, we already know what God’s response will be in Job 38:4, “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations on the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding.” We cannot bargain with God, or second-guess him. In Job 23, Job is trying to think logically an illogical situation. This is why, although he can see in the dark (his understanding is superior to that of his wife and friends) he is blind to the ways of God, because they are so far above human comprehension.

Websites of interest

 Psalms in Hebrew with melodies from the masoretic text

http://www.rakkav.com/kdhinc/index2.htm

 Metrical psalms in French

 http://www.smithcreekmusic.com/Hymnology/Metrical.Psalmody/metricalpsalmody.outline.html

  Hildegard von Bingen

 http://www.healingchants.com/hvb_links.html


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   Poetry Translations of Hildegard von Bingen 

 Three Antiphons from Symphonia

Everlasting God          

Everlasting God

of burning love,

please mold us

into the limbs of Christ,

the body you fashioned from love

in the first dawn before creation.

For the sake of your son,

Lift our burdens, our human needs,

and lead us to salvation's joy. 

The Redeemer 

Pouring blood that cried to the heavens,

when all the elements

folded themselves into sorrow’s voice

with trembling from the touch

of the blood of their creator.

Anoint us.

Heal our wounds.

Holy Spirit  

Holy Spirit, life giving life,

animating all that is,

from where all creatures spring

and all impurities are washed away,

cleansing guilt,

and anointing wounds.

Thus you are luminous and praiseworthy, life,

awakening and renewing all.

  
Poetry Meditations 

After Psalm 4:6-8     

Eternal light

shine on me.

I feast on the spirit,

then slumber

safe in God's lullaby. 

After Job 23
     

God might as well have filled my pockets with rocks

and thrown me into the sea

with no rescuer in sight.           

I want my day in court

to argue for myself.

The scales of justice are in my favor.           

God is too powerful to argue.

but he would listen to reason,

and then I would be free.           

I search everywhere and cannot find him.

My compass must be broken.

Where is he? He already knows that I will pass the test.           

My feet have followed the path he set before me.

His laws have been my food and drink, my breath even.

So why am I drowning?           

His will is solid granite and I am turning to rock.

I am afraid because he has blinded me,

and I can still see in the dark.