New Coverdale Psalter
  • Jehan_Boutte
    Posts: 264
    Has anybody come across the "New Coverdale Psalter", published by the ACNA?

    I had the opportunity to look at it. It seems to be a "modernized" version of the Coverdale Psalter ("Thou/Thee" has been replaced with "You" for instance).

    What do you think?
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,366
    I would not do more than having read of it.
    What is the point in such butchery?
    One does or does not appreciate Coverdale's inimitable labours.


    Thanked by 1StimsonInRehab
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    Nothing is to be left untouched by modernists
    Thanked by 3StimsonInRehab ServiamScores sdtalley3
  • ServiamScores
    Posts: 2,721
    The abbey psalms and canticles translation is atrocious.
    Thanked by 1StimsonInRehab
  • Liam
    Posts: 4,942
    You can thank Liturgicam Authenticam for that.
    Thanked by 2StimsonInRehab M. Jackson Osborn
  • davido
    Posts: 873
    I’m not sure Liturgicam Authenticam is to blame. It no better or worse than the original Grail: both versions are unmusical and un-English, just like the translations of the translations of the mass ordinary.
    These 3 and 4 syllable sequences between stressed syllables is not typical of English literature and scripture translation, but is the defining feature of the Grail. It might be typical of Hebrew or some other language, but it is not an English style.
    Thanked by 1M. Jackson Osborn
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,370
    I have become firmly attached to the 1963 Grail, and loathe changes in words and phrases. And it's true that the original forms of English poetry had this sort of pattern, but it is twice three times as old as Coverdale. Of course the inspiration was from Hebrew via French, which has a more suitable syllable flow.
    Thanked by 3Paul F. Ford Liam M. Jackson Osborn
  • Liam
    Posts: 4,942
    Liturgicam Authenticam, in its reaction, deliberately missed the opportunity to underscore euphony of versification according to the particular genius of the receiving tongue as an important value in translation, especially of lyrical idioms of Scripture and other source texts.

    Yes, I can and do very much blame Liturgicam Authenticam. It's a reminder of C S Lewis' aphorism about errors running in pairs, that one may flee from one to cling to the other.
    Thanked by 2a_f_hawkins ServiamScores
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