ISBN-13: 978-1608191208
Bloomsbury USA, $26.00
“I am no hidebound traditionalist, but since I was raised on the psalms in God’s own King James version, I doubted anyone could improve on them. But Pamela Greenberg has done just that. She has felt her way into the spiritual resonance of these timeless poem/prayers. A remarkable achievement. I am sure this translation, the best one I know of at the moment, will find its way into personal prayer and collective praise.”
—Harvey Cox, Hollis Research Professor of Divinity, Harvard, and author of The Future of Faith
The complete Book of Psalms, in a fresh, new, and alive translation—moving in its immediacy, piercing in its literary beauty, and stunning in its honesty, complexity, and passion.
In her new, complete translation of the Book of Psalms, Pamela Greenberg captures the honesty of these “prayer songs,” as they overflow into wild jubilance or deeply wrenching despair, allowing the beauty and passion of the originals to shine through. Many traditional translations have downplayed anger at God, reinterpreting the psalms in ways that might be doctrinally more palatable, but which flatten the richness and subtlety of the Hebrew verse. Greenberg’s translation aims to restore the poetry and vibrancy of the psalms as a prayerful act, replicating their emotional passion while both wrestling with the text as living liturgy and remaining as true as possible to the original. This new translation rekindles the psalms’ relevance, bringing to life what makes their words cry and breathe and shout—a labor of yearning, necessity, and love.
Foreword by Susannah Heschel
Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College and author of Abraham Geiger and The Jewish Jesus
“Pamela Greenberg’s
delicious new translation
of the psalms … has lifted the old language from spider webs and mothballs, breathing new air into the songs.”
—Mary Karr, Washington Post
author of The Liar’s Club and Lit
“How could anyone improve on the translations I already know? At the first page I was gripped by the actual voice of these poems, and smiled and wept as if seeing a lost friend approach from a great distance—not lost, but alive and breathing, walking closer and closer, stepping into right now.”
—Marie Howe
author of The Good Thief and The Kingdom of Ordinary Time
To Order Your Copy
Pamela Greenberg's
translation of the Psalms is an act of courage. How dare a young poet take a try at a work so well known and much translated! But have a look. She reads the text with fresh eyes and hears the ancient music anew, often translating into our contemporary language in remarkably original and insightful ways. Add this to your shelf of Psalters. You will be well rewarded.
—Rabbi Arthur Green
rector of Hebrew College Rabbinical School, author of Seek My Face, Speak My Name: A Contemporary Jewish Theology