Las alabanças de santidad (Praises of Holiness): Spanish Translation of Psalms

To the Pious Reader

Having with fervent desire sought to reflect on the meaning of our sacred scriptures according to their original and true meaning—since, being the word of God, in this lies all of our happiness and greatest good—and referring to those who with most accuracy explained them, and to make use of some relief in an enterprise of such importance, I found them too various and doubtful for me to use them properly in aiding the accuracy which I desire to see in this work, since it is certain that any translation into another language must necessarily lose its accuracy either in terms of the sense of the concept or that of the connection with and style of the language. For that reason, the gentile who translated our sacred Bible into Spanish, and whose version, through being more agreeable and well liked, is more acceptable among some of us; perhaps, by not being able to translate in another manner for the reason we have mentioned, or through ignorance of the Hebrew style, or to make it suit his purpose more in matter of Religion, he changes the sense of the texts as is manifest to everybody by the translation of Isaiah 7:14 and by that of Daniel 9:25, and many others, where the falseness of his version is apparent.

And regarding the version of the translation by our people, approved in the past in Ferrara [1553], by the most eminent men of that century, which is the most used among us since it is the most adjusted to the truth of the Hebrew text. Neither does it satisfy me sufficiently with regard to the accuracy which I wish to observe, by being so faithful to the apparent sense of the servile letters¹ and some ordinary adverbs, without considering the linguistic style or the various meanings which each one of those letters or any given word might contain; since it frequently seems to the reader that it corrupts the true sense of the intent of the sacred scripture, as can be seen in verses 15, 16, 17 of Chapter 21 of Exodus: and will be seen for the reasons which will occur in the course of this version of ours.

Consequently, these two extremes of versions, in my view, do not suffice to be able to investigate the true sense of the law of our God, the first, through based only on the sense of the concept, without consideration of the linguistic style; and the second, through based on the usual renderings of the words, and on the ordinary meanings of the conjunctive and servile letters without considering the sense of the concept, as shown in the preceding examples.

It seemed to me advisable to choose in addition to these two, a third style of translation by means of which we might achieve our intent of revealing the intrinsic sense of the law; by observing the real significance of the Hebrew words and at the same time their natural style; and now and again supplementing those of the text with some interpolations to connect and tie together the concept, since the style of the language requires it, even though in our common usage it might not be as elegant as it would be if it were not linked to the Hebrew text, from which we are not permitted to deviate, in order to adhere to the true translation which we profess. Consequently, without the Hebrew text being corrupted or altered, there will be formed fully the concept of all that we seek to achieve.

And in order that our truth should shine still more brightly, we have divided into four parts each page of these divine Psalms which we are explaining. The first contains the following on one column: the Hebrew text with its numerated verses; its cantillation signs and pauses, which we call te‘amim. The second, then, opposite it, the translation of the Hebrew text, word for word, with all the supplements necessary for the connection of the concepts which, for their identification, we have set in a different type. The third is the paraphrase, which with the same words of the Hebrew text declares its true meaning amply, and with its marks which correspond to the marks of the notes below. And if perhaps out of necessity the translation on some occasion might differ from the Hebrew text, it is indicated with an H. signifying Hebrew. And the fourth are the notes of the things requiring explanation, or of important things, which are identified with letters which correspond to other similar ones which are placed in the appropriate places in the paraphrase, and at times, in order to explain a verse or concept, a mark of two letters, q.d., is placed, meaning quiere dezir [“which means”]. In addition to which we must propose various rules and some necessary cautions which will serve us as keys in order to be able to unlock the divine treasures of the original and the true understanding of the law, generally so desired by all.