Why Poetry Matters
My recent post on line breaks in the Bible didn't draw much attention. I'm not surprised. Most people run from poetry as if it had the ability to free itself from the book binding and chase people around the room.Notwithstanding this public distaste for verse, the fact remains that a third of the Bible is poetry. Why would God choose such a complex form of communication for something so important as revealing his will to mankind?Maybe the answer lies in understanding what poetry is. W.H. Auden said, "Poetry must say something significant about a reality common to us all, but perceived from a unique perspective." More than anything else--more than rhyme and meter, metaphor and simile, assonance and enjambment, or any other poetical devices--I think it's the "unique perspective" that frustrates people the most.Poetry skews the familiar just enough to get us to meditate upon it. This is what makes it valuable.After I read the following lines from Ted Kooser, I have never looked at a wheelchair the same way again.
"A Rainy Morning"
A young woman in a wheelchair,wearing a black nylon poncho spattered with rain,is pushing herself through the morning.You have seen how pianistssometimes bend forward to strike the keys,then lift their hands, draw back to rest,then lean again to strike just as the chord fades.Such is the way this womanstrikes at the wheels, then lifts her long white fingers,letting them float, then bends again to strikejust as the chair slows, as if into a silence.So expertly she plays the chordsof this difficult music she has mastered,her wet face beautiful in its concentration,while the wind turns the pages of rain.
One of the problems with modern translations that approach the text through dynamic equivalence (attempting to translate the thoughts of the writers rather than the words) is that by simplifying the language, they destroy the poetry.Take, for example, the ESV's translation of Psalm 78:33: "So he made their days vanish like a breath" (ESV). Compare this rendering with the NIV: "So he ended their days in futility"; or the New Living Translation: "So he ended their lives in failure." The more abstract passages have deprived us of the imagery afforded by the idea of "breath." Not only do we lose the original wording, but we lose the poetry as well.Consider a lengthier example from Psalm 73. The ESV reads:
For they have no pangs until death;their bodies are fat and sleek.They are not in trouble as others are;they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.Therefore pride is their necklace;violence covers them as a garment.Their eyes swell out through fatness,their hearts overflow with follies. (Ps. 73:4-7)
Now read the bland attempt of another translation that takes it upon itself to make the meaning "clearer":
They seem to live such a painless life;their bodies are so health and strong.They aren't troubled like other peopleor plagued with problems like everyone else.They wear pride like a jeweled necklace,and their clothing is woven of cruelty.These fat cats have everythingtheir hearts could ever wish for! (NLT)
It's hard not to blush when you get to the fourth couplet and read "fat cats." If we didn't know better, we would think Asaph listened to jazz and had a closet full of zoot suits.A common statement about easy-to-read translations is, "I can understand God's word when I read this!" But the truth is, you may not be reading God's word. Comprehension is an important goal, but updated idioms and a watered-down vocabulary do not always help us reach that goal. When it comes to poetry, the twists and strange perspective improve our understanding. Only when we get comfortable with them will we really be making comprehension our goal.
