My tongue shall speak: the voices of the psalms

Abstract

AbstractThis article examines the poetics of voice in early modern psalm translation. Translations always complicate poetic voice, since in these poems one must, somehow, hear both the voice of the original poet and the voice of translator. The voices of the psalms are further complicated when they are read or sung by Christians, either individually or collectively. Writers since the patristic period have encouraged Christians to speak the psalms as if the words are one's own, but how does this happen? Whose voices do we hear in congregational singing? Are God's, David's, the translator's, and the singer's voices blended in harmonious polyphony? Or can they sometimes clash or drown each other out? Thinking about voice is important for understanding how the psalms are written, read, sung, and ventriloquized by early modern Christians, but thinking about the psalms will have implications for the study of secular poetry as well, especially in translation.