Ps 23:2 – Page 2

Metrical translations of Psalm 23 from the British Isles

Following are a number of translations of Psalm 23 into metre from a number of languages in the British Isles.

The English translation by George Herbert (publ. 1633)

The God of love my shepherd is,
And He that does me feed:
While He is mine, and I am His,
What can I want or need?

He leads me to the tender grass,
Where I both feed and rest;
Then to the streams that gently pass:
In both I have the best.

Or if I stray, He does convert
And bring my mind in frame:
And all this not for my dessert,
But for His holy name.

Yea, in death’s shady black abode
Well may I walk, not fear:
For You are with me; and Your rod
To guide, Your staff to bear.

Nay, you do make me sit and dine,
Ev’n in my enemies’ sight:
My head with oil, my cup with wine
Runs over day and night.

Surely Your sweet and wondrous love
Shall measure all my days;
And as it never shall remove,
So neither shall my praise.

The Welsh translation by Edmund Prys (publ. 1621) (click or tap here)

Yr Arglwydd yw fy ’mugail clau,
    ni âd byth eisiau arnaf:
Mi a gâf orwedd mewn porfa frâs,
    ar lan dwfr gloywlas araf.
Fe goledd f’enaid,
    ac a’m dwg rhyd llwybrau diddrwg cyfion,
Er mwyn ei enw mawr dilys
    Fo’m tywys ar yr union.
Pe rhodiwn (nid ofnwn am hyn)
    yn nyffryn cysgod angau,
Wyd gyda mi, a’th nerth,
    a’th ffon, ond tirion ydyw’r arfau:
Gosodaist fy mwrdd i yn frâs,
    lle’r oedd fy nghâs yn gweled:
Olew i’m pen, a chwppan llawn,
    daionus iawn fu’r weithred.
O’th nawdd y daw y doniau hyn
    i’m canlyn byth yn hylwydd:
A minnau a breswyliaf byth
    a’m nyth yn nhy yr Arglwydd.

The Irish translation by Norman McLeod (publ. 1836) (click or tap here)

Is é Dia féin is áodhaire dhamh,
    Aon easbhuidh orm ni bhíaidh.
Do bheir se orm go luighím sios,
    A ninbhir fhéir mhínlígh:
A’s fós re taobh na nuisgeadhuidh,
    Ag siubhal sios go mall,
Ata se do mo threórughadh,
    Go mín réidh ann ’sgach ball.
Aiseógair m’anam dhamh air ais:
    Treorochuigh se mo chéim
A slighe ghlan na fíréuntacht,
    Do bhrigh dheagh‐anma féin.
Seadh fós, da siubhlóchuin eadhon thríd,
    Glean dhorcha sgáil’ an bháis,
Aon olc na urchóid theacht oram,
    Ni heagal liom ’sní cás;
Do bhrigh go bhfuil tu leam do ghnáth;
    Do lorg ’sdo mhaide tréun,
Atáid ag tabhárt cómhfhurtacht
    A’s fuasgladh dhamh a m’fheidhm.
Gléusfa tu bórd a radhárc mo nam’d:
    Le hola d’úng mo cheann;
A taosgadh ta mo chupán fós,
    Ag meud an lainn tá ann.
Ach leanfuidh maith a’s trócair diom,
    A’n fhaid a bhias me beó;
A’s cómhnochad a náras Dé,
    Air feadh mo ré, ’smo ló.

Digitized by Bible Societies in Ireland with the help of MissionAssist

The Manx translation by Mark, Sodor and Mann (publ. 1761) (click or tap here)

Yn Chiarn eh-hene nee mish y rere,
    Tra ta mee huggey geam;
Yn bochill mie nee goaill kiarail,
    Nagh bee’m dy bragh ayns feme.
Ayns faiyr meenure as lane dy vlaa,
T’eh kinjagh fassagh mee;
    Reesht m’y leeideil gys fynneraght,
    Yn raad ta geillyn roie.
My chree waggântagh t’eh chyndaa,
    Er graih e ennym hene;
As gynsagh mee cre’n aght dy hooyl,
    Ayns raaidyn jeeragh, glen.
Ga dy beïn shooyl ayns coan y vaaish,
    Cha bee’m ayns dooyt erbee;
Dty ’latt, dty lorg nee m’y endeil,
    As kinjagh gerjagh mee.
Neayr’s ta my Yee jeh mooad’s e ghraih,
    Er reayll my vea ass gaue;
Yn vea shen neem’s y hymney da,
    As ayns e hiamble ceau.

The Scottish Gaelic translation (publ. 1992) (click or tap here)

Is e Dia fhèin as buachaill dhomh,
cha bhi mi ann an dìth.
Bheir e fa-near gu’n laighinn sìos
air cluainean glas’ le sìth:

Is fòs ri taobh nan aibhnichean
thèid seachad sìos gu mall,
A ta e ga mo threòrachadh,
gu mìn rèidh anns gach ball.

Tha ’g aisig m’anam dhomh air ais:
’s a treòrachadh mo cheum
Air slighean glan’ na fìreantachd,
air sgàth dheagh ainme fhèin.

Seadh, fòs ged ghluaisinn eadhon trìd
ghlinn dorcha sgàil a’ bhàis,
Aon olc no urchuid a theachd orm
chan eagal leam ’s cha chàs;

Air son gu bheil thu leam a-ghnàth,
do lorg, ’s do bhata treun,
Tha iad a’ tabhairt comhfhurtachd
is fuasglaidh dhomh am fheum.

Dhomh dheasaich bòrd air beul mo nàmh:
le ola dh’ung mo cheann;
Cur thairis tha mo chupan fòs,
aig meud an làin a th’ann.

Ach leanaidh maith is tròcair rium,
an cian a bhios mi beò;
Is còmhnaicheam an àros Dhè,
ri fad mo rè ’s mo lò.

The Scots translation by T.T. Alexander (publ. 1928) (click or tap here)

E’en as a shepherd tents his sheep,
    The Lord for me doth fend;
He mak’s me rest, whaur pasture’s best,
    And wimplin’ waters wend.
Sood my soul ail, He mak’s it hale
    And airts my feet to gang,
For His name’s sake, the bonny gait,
    Whaur’s nocht o’ ill or wrang.
Whaun I am boon to traivel doon
    The mirky Glen o’ Daith,
Nae dreid I bruik, His stave and crook
    Sal haud me free o’ skaith.
Wi’ ample fare Thou dost prepare
    My board, while faemen glow’r;
Wi’ eintment fine my heid dis shine,
    My bicker’s skailin’ ow’re.
Guidness and mercy a’ my days
    Are siccar at my side;
And in God’s hame I’ll be fu’ fain
    For evermair to bide.

Digitized by MissionAssist

Honorary "are" construct denoting God (“accompany”)

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.

One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme are (され) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, tomonaw-are-ru (伴われる) or “accompany” is used.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Psalm 23:2

The sameness of word order, semantic similarities and line length of the two clauses make the parallelism in this verse quite obvious. In line a “he causes me to lie down” is paralleled in line b by “he leads me,” and the same is true of the paired expressions at the end of the two lines. The movement between the two lines is nearly static. They simply say that a is so, and b is so.

He makes me lie down: the causative form of the verb “to lie down” does not have the sense of “he forces me to lie down,” as Revised Standard Version he makes me lie down seems to say (also New English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, New International Version). The idea is that the shepherd finds a place (green pastures) where the sheep can lie down and rest. So New Jerusalem Bible “he lets me lie.”

Green pastures: places in fields or meadows where the grass is abundant, a good place for the sheep to graze and rest. This may need to be rendered “fields where there is much grass to eat” or “good fields to graze in.”

Still waters translates “waters of quietness.” New Jerusalem Bible has “water in places of repose”; Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “brooks of quiet waters.” Also possible is “refreshing streams.” This is not a stagnant pool, but a place where the fresh water flows gently, making it easy for the sheep to drink it. In some languages this is “streams of fresh water” or “rivers with good water.”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on the Book of Psalms. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1991. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

Psalm 23 as classical Chinese poetry

John Wu Ching-hsiung (1899-1986) was a native of Ningbo, Zhejiang, a renowned jurist who studied in Europe and the United States, and served as a professor of law at Soochow University, as a judge and the Acting President of the Shanghai Provisional Court, and as the Vice President of the Commission for the Drafting of the Constitution of the Republic of China, before becoming the Minister of the Republic of China to the Holy See. Wu has written extensively, not only on law but also on Chinese philosophy, and has also written his autobiography, Beyond East and West, in English. Wu was a devout Catholic and had a personal relationship with Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975). Wu began translating the the Psalms in 1938, and was encouraged by Chiang to translate the entire New Testament, which he corrected in his own handwriting. (…) John Wu Ching-hsiung’s translation of the Psalms (first draft in 1946, revised in 1975) was translated into Literary Chinese in the form of poetic rhyme, with attention paid to the style of writing. According to the content and mood of the different chapters of the original psalm, Wu chose Chinese poetic forms such as tetrameter, pentameter, heptameter [4, 5 or 7 syllables/Chinese characters per stanza], and the [less formal] Sao style, and sometimes more than two poetic forms were used in a single poem. (Source: Simon Wong)

John Wu Ching-hsiung himself talks about his celebrated and much-admired (though difficult-to-understand) translation in his aforementioned autobiography: (Click or tap here to see)

“Nothing could have been farther from my mind than to translate the Bible or any parts of it with a view to publishing it as an authorized version. I had rendered some of the Psalms into Chinese verse, but that was done as a part of my private devotion and as a literary hobby. When I was in Hongkong in 1938, I had come to know Madame H. H. Kung [Soong Ai-ling], and as she was deeply interested in the Bible, I gave her about a dozen pieces of my amateurish work just for her own enjoyment. What was my surprise when, the next time I saw her, she told me, “My sister [Soong Mei-ling] has written to say that the Generalissimo [Chiang Kai-shek] likes your translation of the Psalms very much, especially the first, the fifteenth, and the twenty-third, the Psalm of the Good Shepherd!”

“In the Autumn of 1940, when I was in Chungking, the Generalissimo invited me several times to lunch with him and expressed his appreciation of the few pieces that he had read. So I sent him some more. A few days later I received a letter from Madame Chiang [Soong Mei-ling], dated September 21, 1940, in which she said that they both liked my translation of the few Psalms I had sent them. ‘For many years,’ she wrote, ‘the Generalissimo has been wanting to have a really adequate and readable Wen-li (literary) translation of the Bible. He has never been able to find anyone who could undertake the matter.’ The letter ends up by saying that I should take up the job and that ‘the Generalissimo would gladly finance the undertaking of this work.’

“After some preliminary study of the commentaries, I started my work with the Psalms on January 6, 1943, the Feast of the Epiphany.

“I had three thousand years of Chinese literature to draw upon. The Chinese vocabulary for describing the beauties of nature is so rich that I seldom failed to find a word, a phrase, and sometimes even a whole line to fit the scene. But what makes such Psalms so unique is that they bring an intimate knowledge of the Creator to bear upon a loving observation of things of nature. I think one of the reasons why my translation is so well received by the Chinese scholars is that I have made the Psalms read like native poems written by a Chinese, who happens to be a Christian. Thus to my countrymen they are at once familiar and new — not so familiar as to be jejune, and not so new as to be bizarre. I did not publish it as a literal translation, but only as a paraphrase.

“To my greatest surprise, [my translation of the Psalms] sold like hot dogs. The popularity of that work was beyond my fondest dreams. Numberless papers and periodicals, irrespective of religion, published reviews too good to be true. I was very much tickled when I saw the opening verse of the first Psalm used as a headline on the front page of one of the non-religious dailies.”

A contemporary researcher (Lindblom 2021) mentions this about Wu’s translation: “Wu created a unique and personal work of sacred art that bears the imprint of his own admitted love and devotion, a landmark achievement comparable to Antoni Gaudi’s Basilica of the Sagrada Família in Barcelona, Spain. Although its use is still somewhat limited today, it continues to attract readers for the aforementioned qualities, and continues to be used in prayers and music by those who desire beauty and an authentic Chinese-sounding text that draws from China’s ancient traditions.”

The translation of Psalm 23 from the 1946 edition is in pentameter and the rhyme scheme is -ou (the 1946 edition did not have verse numbers either):

良牧

主乃我之牧。所需百無憂。令我草上憩。引我澤畔游。吾魂得復蘇。仁育一何周。更為聖名故。率我正道由。雖經陰谷裏。主在我何愁。爾策與爾杖。實令我心休。讌我群敵前。感爾恩施優。靈膏沐我首。玉爵盈欲流。慈惠共聖澤。長與我為儔。行藏勿離主。此外更何求。
靠。孤兒兮無父。惟主兮是怙。求主痛擊群姦兮。折其臂膀。窮究妖孽兮。降以淪喪。惟我天主兮。永古為王。與主為敵兮。靡有不亡。主已垂聽兮。謙者之音。必賜慰藉兮。堅固其心。伸彼冤屈兮。保彼焭獨。莫令凡人兮。擅作威福。

Transcription into Roman alphabet with the rhyme scheme highlighted:

liáng mù

zhǔ nǎi wǒ zhī mù 。 suǒ xū bǎi wú yōu 。 líng wǒ cǎo shàng qì 。 yǐn wǒ zé pàn yóu 。 wú hún dé fù sū 。 rén yù yī hé zhōu 。 gēng wéi shèng míng gù 。 shuài wǒ zhèng dào yóu 。 suī jīng yīn gǔ lǐ 。 zhǔ zài wǒ hé chóu 。 ěr cè yǔ ěr zhàng 。 shí líng wǒ xīn xiū 。 mā wǒ qún dí qián 。 gǎn ěr ēn shī yōu 。 líng gāo mù wǒ shǒu 。 yù jué yíng yù liú 。 cí huì gòng shèng zé 。 cháng yǔ wǒ wéi chóu 。 xíng cáng wù lí zhǔ 。 cǐ wài gēng hé qiú 。

This translation of Psalm 23 has also been set to music by individual artists (see Hu Mingzhe’s 胡明哲 version ) and is used in Catholic hymnals .

With thanks to Simon Wong.

Step into the multitudes of languages of the Bible and join the worldwide conversation!

Verse: Psalm 23:2