Book Of Psalms [Hardcover]

Update: Jan. 2010
I wrote to Prof. Alter to inquire about any other biblical translations because, quite frankly, his translation (and, Prof. Everett Fox' translation) are some of the most exciting and intriguing books to be published in any genre. Here is Prof. Alter's response:

Dear Mr. Lawrence,

Many thanks for your enthusiastic response. The next installment of my Bible translations, The Wisdom Books: Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes: A Translation with Commentary will be published in October [2010].

All best,

Robert Alter
***** ***** *****

I've come to expect excellence from Professor Alter, especially after first reading The NY Times review of his "The Five Books of Moses" (Sept. 2004). It was a wonderful translation. I then purchased his translations of Genesis and The David Story based on (I & II Samuel), both books read like a novel. The David Story, in particular, I found to be an exceptionally vivid portrait of David, although I don't agree with Prof. Alter's conservative supposition of David's relationship with Michal and Jonathan. Minor point, but usually Alter, the intellectual, in his annotations is known to challenge orthodoxy. The Book of Psalms, although not a biographical sketch, is written in the typical Alter style.

Take for instance a troubling Psalm for translation. Psalm 2: A declaration of God's dominion.

KJV
Serve The Lord with fear/ and rejoice with trembling/Kiss The Son, lest he be angry...

Artscroll, Tehillim (2006)
Serve The Lord with awe/That you may rejoice, When there is trembling...

Alter's Trns
Worship the Lord in fear/ and exult in trembling/ With purity be armed...

The strength of Alter's writings is, indeed, by his willingness to employ by etymology and analytical reasoning (and not by tradition) to find some satisfactory conclusion. This is what separates Alter from the bunch. All of this comes to focus when Alter stops to talk about the root meaning of words and then transposes them in familiar territory.

Psalm 27:1

REB
The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear?

JPS (1917,85)
Adonai, is my light and my life. Whom shall I fear?

Alter's
The Lord is my light and my rescue. Whom should I fear?

It is in these moments, that Alter's vision provokes deep thought when considering historical usage of words. Take for instance, the meaning of the word, "salvation." Here's Alter's comments:

"Salvation is the term that the translators in 1611 chose to represent the Hebrew yeshu'ah, and it has shown more than a little persistence in the various modern versions...[and] comes to designate a global process of messianic redemption. But in Psalms, this noun and its cognate verb hoshi'a are strictly directed to the here and now. Hoshi'a means to get someone out of a tight fix, to rescue him. When the tight fix involves the threat of enemies on the battlefield, yeshu'ah can mean `victory.' More commonly, both the noun and the verb indicate `rescue.'

In Hebrew, there are two words for the familiar English equivalent, "salvation." As Rabbi Avi Weiss of South Florida once commented, there is a distinct difference between what is commonly held as an understanding of the term and it's true meaning as both relates to being `saved:' Hatzalah and yeshu'ah. "Hatzalah requires no action on the part of the person being saved. Yeshu'ah, on the other hand, is the process whereby the recipient of the salvation participates in helping him or herself."

I love this book already. The book is noticeably light for a book about 500 pages. The text is black (about 14pt) with the annotations (about 12pt.) on cream colored paper and has a red placeholder that Professor Alter should have insisted on when WW Norton published "The Five Books." Anyway, differences in opinion is always a good thing: it forces you to re-think and verify what you hold to be true. This translation will definitely challenge you.

I've been going through a patch of bad health lately. To help ease my way, some friends were kind enough to give me Robert Alter's translations of the Psalms. They didn't know that I'm a fan of Alter's earlier Five Books of Moses translation. I was delighted to receive their gift.

I've been reading the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) translations of the psalms for so long that they've become second nature to me. But Alter's renderings have an immediacy that really does bring a sense of vitality, of expectancy, of being-there-in-the-moment, that awakens both the senses and the heart.

Take the well known Quemadimodum, Psalm 42. The BCP's translation of the beginning is this:

As the deer longs for the water brooks,
so longs my soul for you, O God.

My soul is athirst for God, athirst for the living God;
when shall I come to appear before the presence of God?

Here's Alter's translation:

As a deer yearns for streams of water,
so I yearn for You, O God.

My whole being thirsts for God,
for the living God.

When shall I come and see
the presence of God?

The BCP version has a lovely, contemplative rhythm. But Alter's version has an edge that expresses not just longing but almost a demand. It's an interesting change of pace, and one that invites a different set of responses and prayers.

Alter's commentary to his translations is graceful and informative, and not--thank God!--heavy-handed and pedantic. I generally distrust commentary attached to translated poetry. But Alter's usually enhances rather than distracts.

This translation is a wonderful gift that Alter has given us all. And my copy of his translation is a wonderful gift from my friends. Thank you!

Robert Alter the great master- critic of understanding the Bible as literary text here puts his considerable knowledge of Biblical poetics and translation techniques to use in an effort to capture the compactness, and rhythm of the Hebrew original. Alter's aim is to give us a translation closer to the source than any done before.
In doing so he faced many problems one of them of course being the canonical place the 'King James Version' has in the hearts of many lovers of the Bible. Alter handles this in varying ways. In Psalm 23 he leaves the famous opening "The Lord is my Shepherd' in part because he could find no way of compacting the Hebrew original which is three words only. Later on in the other most well- known line of the poem he translates in place of "Though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." ,"Though I walk in the vale of death's shadow/I fear no harm." Though Alter's translation may be here more accurate, it is difficult not to feel the impossibility of improving upon a 'line' which has in itself become part of the English tradition in Literature, and which is so deep in the hearts and minds of many readers.
Alter is knowledgeable, skillful and his work has true literary power. It is a translation which definitely adds to the tradition of translations of what is arguably the greatest and most meaningful personal religious poetry ever written.
His commentary is in itself a small masterwork which will deeply enrich the understanding of all who read ,love, and our strengthened by 'Tehillim'.