Translatable Poetry
—In the Old Testament

This study complements our studies of Old Testament poetry collections such as the books of Psalms and Proverbs. A little understanding of how the Hebrew poetry works will help us better appreciate these Bible books.

Bible poetry rarely relies on devices such as rhyme or meter, but often on a device called "parallelism" defined in Chambers’s dictionary as a balanced construction of a verse or sentence, where one part repeats the form or meaning of the other.

Parallelism is a poetic form that translates into other languages strongly, without needing to paraphrase. The following example in English retains its poetic power because translation does not destroy the echo effect.

1 Examples of Paralellism

Psalm 19:1-2
The heavens tell God’s glory,
The firmament shows his handiwork.
Day to day utters speech,
Night to night reveals knowledge.

In that example, the first two lines are pure parallelism, whereas the last two lines modify the repetition with a contrasting pair, in this case day and night.

There are all kinds of variations on this device. In the Shepherd’s Psalm, for instance, we find these three lines...

Psalm 23:1-3
He makes me to lie down in green pastures,
He leads me beside the still waters,
He restores my soul.

In that example, the first two lines are figurative forms of what the third line says literally. The same thing is said once in a figure, again in another like figure, and then the third time in literal terms. It is quite beautiful, isn't it?

Psalm 24 and especially verses 7-10 use repetition intensely, as does Psalm 29 about "the voice of the LORD."

2 Echo and Imagery

In some Psalms there may be no formal parallelism, however you will find lots of echoes. The second book begins with "As a Deer..." (Psalm 42), a most beautiful song with almost no parallelism except the first three lines. Yet various echoes reverberate all through the poem.

Notice, for instance, how questions occur at intervals and how this adds tension to the poem. This psalm also uses powerful imagery, another device in Bible poetry, and another thing that suffers very little loss in translation.

3 It Is No Accident

I'm sure it is no accident, but rather providential, that Bible poetry loses little in the translation into other languages. With most other kinds of poetry, something is lost in translation. Either the poet’s meaning is partly lost, or the poetry itself.

The psalms are made for singing. Many of the songs we sing in Christian assembly are portions from the psalms. They lend themselves well to a variety of music styles, but especially to simple chants in both old and modern styles. Many of the latest popular songs of praise are simple modern melodic chants, whose words are drawn from the poems and psalms of the Old Testament.

Of course we appreciate the psalms and proverbs not merely for their adaptable poetry, but for the truths that these poems convey so powerfully to us.

Mary’s Psalm

I will conclude this lesson with one of my favourite psalms. This psalm by Mary, the mother of Jesus, is in the New Testament, not the Old. Luke rendered Mary’s psalm in Greek for Theophilus to read, and that in turn is translated into English for us to read. So we have a translation of a translation of Mary’s original words. Even so, the power and beauty of her words shine through and do not seem at all diminished.

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Webservant Ron Graham

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