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Untitled Article
which ifc commonly assigned to the exmtenae ' of tfea llfvltaf Hdmer . But it is noi with them as with nrntif of the productions of the classic muse , of which the antiquity constitutes their greatest claim upon the attention of the scholar , and of which the subjects possess little or no interest for the world in its manhood . It was the privilege of the Hebrew bards td be employed upon subjects possessing an interest a * enduring as the attributes of God and the nature of dependent man .
Their poetry has the deep foundation of eternal truth . It comes , for the most part , in language the most glowing , from the very depths of the soul , rich in sentiments adapted to the soul ' s rriost urgent wantg . Hence its living spirit , its immortal freshness . Hence its power b ( reitchingthe hearts of all men , in all countries ^ and in aH ages . Wfiefe in the whole compass of literature can we find more of the * thoughts that breathe and words that burn ' than in the Hebrew Anthology ? Then * too , what variety is there in the subjects of these ancient compositions I : How diverse the states of heart and fortune that occasioned them I
How various the strains of joy , sorrow , love , hope , fear , remorse and penitence , which come from the sacred lyre ! * Surely his must be a singular human soul that is not touched by some of them / We xigree with Mr . Noyes in thinking that an * obstacle to a proper estimate of { he sacred poetry is the very imperfect translation and wretched arrangement in which it has been presented to English readers . ! Let the lover of poetry imagine what impression he should receive
from the odes of Collins and Gray , cut up Into fragments like th& verses in the common version of the Bible , and he may comprehend what injustice has been done to the Hebrew poets * ' In fact not otife reader in a hundred supposes that in reading the Psalms he is reading * ptietry . Nor are we sure that the method adopted by the . author of the translation before us , by Mr . Wellbeloved and others , in preserving in their translation the structure of the original , is sufficient to give the
mere English reader a proper notion of Hebrew poetry . For this end we should prefer sending a reader to Geddes ' s translation , in which the inversions of the original are preserved , and whdSe translation in consequence receives to some extent the form of English blank verse . Had" ^ reaTry ftterar translation , literal as to the collocation srsr weit as the rendering of the words , been made by King James ' s translators , those who were acquainted With Milton ' s Paradise Lost , ' could not have mistaken poetry for prose while reading the Psalms .
thus Mr . NoyeS translates the beginning of the sixty-third Psalm ;— - 4 Q God , thou art my God ! earnestly do I seek thee . 'My soul thirsteth , my flesh lortgeth for thee , * In a dry , thirsty land , where fs no water I 4 Thus I Idok toward thee in thy sanctuary , ' To behold thy p 6 wer and thy glory ! ' '
Now compare with this the version of Geddcs : —• O < 3 od , my strength art thou r I seek thed eartjr J After thee rrty soul thirsteth ; for thee Irijr . flestl Jr <* artleth , * X « ike a dry , droughty , waterless land ! ? If ettce , in pttrity of mind , Coward tfcee I loo * ,
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960 Critical Notici *?** flfeMi TtohddMon df the Psalms .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1832, page 350, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1812/page/62/
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