A truly Lenten psalm, and doubly fitting for a teacher in the doldrums of February. I narrated this psalm to some colleagues while they bemoaned various tribulations of teaching and they chortled with delight.
More seriously, this one plays out the Passion scene most beautifully. Try a composition of place with this as the narration. Soundtrack of His life, indeed.
“Domine, ne in furore” (Psalm 37)
[1] Psalmus David, in rememorationem de sabbato.
A Psalm of David, unto remembrance concerning the Sabbath.
[2] Domine, ne in furore tuo arguas me, neque in ira tua corripias me;
O Lord, lest in Your fury You charge me, nor in Your anger You rebuke me;
[3] quoniam sagittae tuae infixae sunt mihi, et confirmasti super me manum tuam.
for Your arrows are stuck fast to me and You have strengthened over me Your hand.
[4] Non est sanitas in carne mea, a facie irae tuae; non est pax ossibus meis, a facie peccatorum meorum :
There is no health in my flesh, from the face of Your anger; there is no peace in my bones, from the face of my sins;
[5] quoniam iniquitates meae supergressae sunt caput meum, et sicut onus grave gravatae sunt super me.
for my injustices have walked over my head and just as a heavy weight they have weighed over me.
[6] Putruerunt et corruptae sunt cicatrices meae, a facie insipientiae meae.
They have rotted and been corrupted, my wounds, from the face of my folly.
[7] Miser factus sum et curvatus sum usque in finem; tota die contristatus ingrediebar.
Poor am I made and bent am I even unto the end; all the day saddened I walked on.
[8] Quoniam lumbi mei impleti sunt illusionibus, et non est sanitas in carne mea.
For my loins have been filled with illusions and there is no health in my flesh.
[9] Afflictus sum, et humiliatus sum nimis; rugiebam a gemitu cordis mei.
Afflicted am I and humiliated much; I wept from the weeping of my heart.
[10] Domine, ante te omne desiderium meum, et gemitus meus a te non est absconditus.
O Lord, before You all my desire and my weeping from You is not hidden.
[11] Cor meum conturbatum est, dereliquit me virtus mea, et lumen oculorum meorum, et ipsum non est mecum.
My heart has been troubled, it has abandoned me, my strength and the light of my eyes, and the same is not with me.
[12] Amici mei et proximi mei adversum me appropinquaverunt, et steterunt; et qui juxta me erant, de longe steterunt, et vim faciebant qui quaerebant animam meam.
My friends and my neighbors against me have drawn near and have stood; and who were near me afar off have stood and they were making force who were seeking my soul.
[13] Et qui inquirebant mala mihi, locuti sunt vanitates, et dolos tota die meditabantur.
And who were seeking evils for me have spoken vanities and deceits all the day they were pondering.
[14] Ego autem, tamquam surdus, non audiebam; et sicut mutus non aperiens os suum.
Whereas I, like a deaf, I was not hearing; and just as a mute not opening his mouth.
[15] Et factus sum sicut homo non audiens, et non habens in ore suo redargutiones.
And I have been made just as a man not hearing and not having in his mouth refutations.
[16] Quoniam in te, Domine, speravi; tu exaudies me, Domine Deus meus.
For in You, O Lord, have I hoped; You Yourself will listen out for me, O Lord my God.
[17] Quia dixi : Nequando supergaudeant mihi inimici mei; et dum commoventur pedes mei, super me magna locuti sunt.
Since I have said, “Never let them rejoice over me, my enemies;” and when they are moved, my feet, over me great things have they spoken.
[18] Quoniam ego in flagella paratus sum, et dolor meus in conspectu meo semper.
For I, unto whips I am prepared, and my sorrow in my sight ever.
[19] Quoniam iniquitatem meam annuntiabo, et cogitabo pro peccato meo.
For my injustice I will announce and I will think before my sin.
[20] Inimici autem mei vivunt, et confirmati sunt super me : et multiplicati sunt qui oderunt me inique.
But my enemies live and are strengthened over me; and they are multiplied who hate me unjustly.
[21] Qui retribuunt mala pro bonis detrahebant mihi, quoniam sequebar bonitatem.
Who repay evils for goods were dragging me off, for I was following goodness.
[22] Ne derelinquas me, Domine Deus meus; ne discesseris a me.
Lest You abandon me, O Lord my God; lest You withdraw from me.
[23] Intende in adjutorium meum, Domine, Deus salutis meae.
Hasten unto my assistance, O Lord, the God of my salvation.
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v. 12 vim faciebant A delightful phrase which any idiot could translate as “make a show of force,” but for which God hath ordained a higher purpose: to throw down the gauntlet, the make a contest of thews, but best, in the words of the blameless mantic The Rza, “to bring the [expletive deleted] ruckus.” Hence: “they were making ruckus, who besoughteth my soul.”
v. 15 redargutiones was new to me and remarkably hard to type without concentrating. It comes from arguo, to argue, so “arguing back, counter-argument, refutation.”
v. 20 inique Sometimes simple things in Latin just don’t look right and you spin off wildly into bizarre scavenger hunts for meaning. My classics professor long ago told story of not correctly processing tune on his sight translation as the pronoun tu with the –ne enclitic showing a question. tunis? tunus? Noun? Adjective? Imperative?? For one horrifying instant I had the same experience with inique (Ini + que? Wha…???) and then realized it was just the adverb of iniquus.
v.21 detrahebunt mihi One of my strong preferences in translations is to preserve case as much as possible. If the Latin verb takes a genitive, I look for an English equivalent that naturally takes a genitive, if dative etc. This conflicts with one of my other strong preferences, not multiplying words as much as possible. At the meeting point of these two principles is my “best of all possible worlds.” Here the best possible world is not so pretty; the only way to get a natural dative to fall out of detrahebunt is to make it something like “they were causing diminishment to me.” We typically say “detract from” in English and the other standard ways to render detrahebunt take a plain ol’ direct object.
Teaching Boys Badly 