POET Psalms 33 and 38: On Translating 22-verse Psalms as Double Acrostics (Boerger 2025)

SIL’s Journal of Translation is proud to announce the publication of its final article of 2025:

POET Psalms 33 and 38: On Translating 22-verse Psalms as Double Acrostics

Boerger, Brenda H. 2025. “POET Psalms 33 and 38: On Translating 22-Verse Psalms as Double Acrostics.” Journal of Translation 21 (1): 59–92. https://doi.org/10.54395/JOT-BPOET33.  

Abstract

Drawing on the author’s 2024 book Poetic Opus English Translation of the Psalms (POET Psalms), this article discusses composing Psalms 33 and 38 using a revised set of twelve principles for translating poetry. The use of double acrostics is introduced and defended despite their absence in Biblical Hebrew. This study demonstrates how the integration of poetic structures, rhetorical devices, and recommended melodic settings yields cohesive, performative English compositions. Since such heightened- language translations reflect more accurately the art of the Hebrew, they should be adopted as best practice for translating biblical poetry. Finally, genre discovery research is encouraged to support other heightened language translations.

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