SBL in San Diego is fast approaching, particularly as I travel that way early to see my family and home state (Oregon) for the first time in ages. My paper on Psalm 102 (or read the proposal) is nearly ready, and for those of you who may wish to acquaint yourselves with the subject matter, I post below Robert Alter's new translation of the psalm in question.

1 A prayer for the lowly when he grows faint and pours out his plea before the LORD.
2 LORD, O hear my prayer,
and let my outcry come before You.
3 Hide not Your face from me
on the day when I am in straits.
Incline Your ear to me.
On the day I call, quickly answer me.
4 For my days are consumed in smoke,
and my bones are scorched like a hearth.
5 My heart is stricken and withers like grass,
so I forget to eat my bread.
6 From my loud sighing,
my bones cleave to my flesh.
7 I resemble the wilderness jackdaw,
I become like the owl of the ruins.
8 I lie awake and become
like a lonely bird on a roof.
9 All day long my enemies revile me,
my taunters invoke me in curse.
10 For ashes I have eaten as bread,
and my drink I have mingled with tears—
11 because of Your wrath and Your fury,
for You raised me up and flung me down.
12 My days inclined like a shadow,
and I—like grass I withered.
13 And You LORD, forever enthroned,
and Your name—for all generations.
14 You, may You rise, have mercy on Zion,
for it is the hour to pity her, for the fixed time has come.
15 For Your servants cherish her stones
and on her dust they take pity.
16 All the nations will fear the name of the LORD,
and all the kings of the earth, Your glory.
17 For the LORD has rebuilt Zion,
He is seen in His glory.
18 He has turned to the prayer of the desolate
and has not despised their prayer.
19 Let this be inscribed for a generation to come,
that a people yet unborn may praise Yah.
20 For the LORD has gazed down from His holy heights,
from heaven to earth He has looked
21 to hears the groans of the captive,
to set loose those doomed to die,
22 that the name of the LORD be recounted in Zion
and His praise in Jerusalem
23 when peoples gather together
and kingdoms, to serve the LORD.
24 He humbled my strength on the highway,
he cut short my days.
25 I say, “O my God.
Do not take me away in the midst of my days!
Your years are for all generations.
26 Of old You founded the earth,
and the heavens—Your handiwork.
27 They will perish and You will yet stand.
They will all wear away like a garment.
Like clothing you change them, and they pass away.
28 But You—Your years never end.
29 The sons of Your servants dwell safe,
their seed in Your presence, unshaken.”

My only question: I get why you'd want to keep as much of the ancient character in the translation as possible, but does "Yah" in verse 19 really count as a translation? Seems like punting.

Tags: Psalms