Some of them, without much success. I should start small, even smaller than Psalm 130; someone recommended memorizing this psalm to recite as one passes graveyards (there is, I believe, an indulgence attached).
My favorite translation is the hard-to-find Coverdale translation in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. There are many memorable phrasings: "my beauty is gone for very trouble" (Psalm 6); "he knappeth the spear in sunder" (Psalm 46); "extreme to mark what is done amiss" (Psalm 130).
Without intending to, I've memorized some of the less euphonious renderings of the New American Bible: "Jerusalem, built as a city/ with compact unity,/ To it the tribes go up,/ the tribes of the Lord."
I once knew a former Episcopalian monk who claimed to remember the entire Psalter from the 1928 BCP. It is a good rendering.
Have you seen this edition of Coverdale's psalter? www.lutheransonline.com/lo/675/FSLO-1059011476-804675.pdf
I thoughtlessly started recently with Psalm 1, intending to go from 1 to 150. Heh. Now that you mention them, I think I'll finish 1 and continue with the penitential psalms - partial indulgences are indeed granted for 130 and 51.
It was your blog description that brought me back to the psalms: "I will show my dark speech upon the harp." I'd forgotten that English could do that.
Thanks for the link to the Coverdale psalter! (And yes, I should probably memorize 51. I do have a confessor who often assigns the reading of it as a penance.)
Some of them, without much success. I should start small, even smaller than Psalm 130; someone recommended memorizing this psalm to recite as one passes graveyards (there is, I believe, an indulgence attached).
ReplyDeleteMy favorite translation is the hard-to-find Coverdale translation in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. There are many memorable phrasings: "my beauty is gone for very trouble" (Psalm 6); "he knappeth the spear in sunder" (Psalm 46); "extreme to mark what is done amiss" (Psalm 130).
Without intending to, I've memorized some of the less euphonious renderings of the New American Bible: "Jerusalem, built as a city/ with compact unity,/ To it the tribes go up,/ the tribes of the Lord."
I once knew a former Episcopalian monk who claimed to remember the entire Psalter from the 1928 BCP. It is a good rendering.
Have you seen this edition of Coverdale's psalter? www.lutheransonline.com/lo/675/FSLO-1059011476-804675.pdf
ReplyDeleteI thoughtlessly started recently with Psalm 1, intending to go from 1 to 150. Heh. Now that you mention them, I think I'll finish 1 and continue with the penitential psalms - partial indulgences are indeed granted for 130 and 51.
It was your blog description that brought me back to the psalms: "I will show my dark speech upon the harp." I'd forgotten that English could do that.
Thanks for the link to the Coverdale psalter! (And yes, I should probably memorize 51. I do have a confessor who often assigns the reading of it as a penance.)
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