Donald Traxler's Poetry: February 2023

Tuesday, February 28, 2023

Sunday, February 26, 2023

Miscellanea II

Aphasialand

This morning, for fifteen or twenty minutes, I could not remember the verb "to crop" (as a photo) in English. I could remember it in Spanish (recortar), which is easy to understand, since I crop on the computer, which speaks to me in Spanish, since I bought it in Uruguay. But I have to wonder whether, some dark day in Aphasialand, I will only be able to speak languages other than my own. Fortunately, I have plenty of friends who speak Spanish, and even French, but there is not one that speaks Latin.

Geckos

I know that geckos
are related to dinosaurs,
but who would think
that they are related
to robins?



Text and image Copyright © 2023 by Donald C. Traxler aka Yablom.

Friday, February 24, 2023

Wednesday, February 22, 2023

Tuesday, February 21, 2023

Psalm 17

Hear a just cause, O Lord,

be attentive to my cry.

Give ear to my prayer,

it comes from lips that

are without fraud.

May my judgment issue forth

from your presence,

may your eyes see

my integrity.

You have tried my heart,

You have visited by night

and tested me,

and in me was found

no iniquity.

That my mouth might not speak

of the deeds of men,

due to words from your lips,

I kept to difficult ways.

Restore my steps

to your paths,

that my feet

may not falter.

I have invoked You

that You might hear me,

O God,

incline your ear

to me,

and hear

my words.

Make your mercy marvelous,

You who save

those who hope in You

from those who resist

your right hand.

Guard me as the

pupil of your eye,

protect me

in the shade

of your wings

from the wicked who

have afflicted me.

My enemies have surrounded me,

closing ranks with their bulk

and their bragging mouths,

they have taunted me,

advancing against me

they surround me,

their eyes set on

throwing me to the ground.

They are like a lion

ready to attack,

like the lion cub

who waits in hiding.

Rise up, O Lord,

meet and overthrow them,

save my soul

from the wicked

by your sword,

by your hand,

from these men,

dead in their depths,

whose portion

is this life.

But as for your protected ones,

you will fill their stomachs,

so that their sons will be satisfied

and they will send the rest

to their infants.

But I, justified,

shall behold your face:

when I have awakened,

I shall be filled

with the vision

of You.

Sunday, February 19, 2023

Psalm 16

Protect me O Lord,

because I have hoped in You,

saying to the Lord,

You are my Lord

because I have no

welfare apart from You.

As for the "holy and mighty ones"

who are in the land,

my whole desire concerning them

is that the sorrows of those

who follow them

should be multiplied.

I shall not offer

their libations of blood

nor place their names

upon my lips.

The Lord is my portion of inheritance

and my cup.

It is You who are the master

of my fate.

Boundary lines dropped for me

in the most beautiful places

and my inheritance

is most special to me.

I shall bless the Lord

who has given me counsel,

and by night my heart

gives me instruction.

I shall keep the Lord always in my sight,

for with Him at my right hand,

I shall not be shaken.

Because of this,

my heart rejoices

and my glory exults,

and my body shall

live in hope,

for You will not

abandon my soul

to hell,

or let your devoted one

see corruption.

You have made known to me

the path of life.

You have filled me with joy

with your presence,

in your right hand

are delights

forever.

Friday, February 17, 2023

Rachamim

Is rachamim*

really related

to rechem?**

It should be

if it isn't.

The same womb

that births children

also births

mercy and gentleness,

in a world

greatly in need.

*mercy

**womb

האם רחמים

באמת קשור

רֶחֶם?

זה צריך להיות

אם זה לא.

אותו רחם

שיולדת ילדים

גם לידות

רחמים ועדינות,

בעולם

זקוקים מאוד.

--Yablom

Thursday, February 16, 2023

Wednesday, February 15, 2023

Aging Project XXX - About this Series

Monday, February 13, 2023

Saturday, February 11, 2023

I rarely post color photos, but why not? It's a lot less work for me, and they are, after all, not art photos, but photos of record. A color photo also gives more information than a black-and-white photo. Since my goal here is to document the process of my aging, information is what it's all about.

In my previous post in this series, I mentioned having hurt my shoulder. Actually, I've figured out what happened, and it wasn't exactly that. About six years ago, while we were living in Uruguay, I badly pulled (tore? I don't know) a deltoid muscle in my left arm. It took about six months to heal, and it has been vulnerable to injury since then. I injured it again in the course of taking the cover off our new hot tub.

It's all too easy to forget that, as seniors, we are much more vulnerable to injuries than we were when we were younger.

Get someone to help you, or devise a method for doing the job that will put less strain on your body.

My current weight is 141.0 lbs. (64.1 kg). In three days I've gained 1.4 lbs. (.6 kg), and that's what allowing yourself a beer now and then, or maybe some snack crackers, will do for you. At least my wedding ring isn't falling off anymore. But I've got to watch it, because the weight goes right to my gut.

I'm still walking Betty, our dog, for about half an hour every day (except today, because here on the Gulf coast of central Florida it's quite stormy right now. Betty hates that, and I don't like it much, either).

Any comments will be very welcome. You can enter them directly on this page, or send them to me:

exolinguist at gmail dot com

Thanks for reading my blog and following this series.

Photo - Still Life I

Friday, February 10, 2023

PSALM 15

Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent,

who shall dwell on your holy mountain?

They who walk immaculately and do justice,

who speak truth in their hearts,

and have no slander on their tongues;

who do no evil to their friends

nor take up reproach against their neighbors;

who despise reprobates,

but honor those who fear the Lord;

who stand by their oaths

even to their own harm,

and do not renege,

who do not lend money at interest,

nor accept bribes against the innocent.

Those who do these things

shall not be shaken forever.

Thursday, February 9, 2023

PSALM 14

The fool says in his heart:

"There is no God."

They are corrupt,

and they have eagerly done

abominable things.

There is none who does good.

The Lord looks down from heaven

upon the children of men,

to see whether there is anyone

who is wise or seeks God.

All have turned away and are depraved.

There is no one who does good,

not even one.

Will they ever learn,

those who do injustice,

who devour my people

as they would bread,

and do not call upon the Lord?

There they will tremble with fear,

for God is with a righteous generation.

You have put to shame the plans of the poor,

because the Lord is their hope.

Who will bring the deliverance of Israel

out from Zion?

When the Lord overturns the captivity of his people,

Jacob will exult, and Israel will rejoice.

Wednesday, February 8, 2023

Aging Project XXVII

". . . off of it. . . "

Tuesday, February 7, 2023

PSALM 13

How long, O Lord, will you completely forget me?

How long will you hide your face from me?

How long will I suffer doubts in my soul,

and grief every day in my heart?

How long will my enemy be exalted over me?

Look at me, answer me, O Lord, my God!

Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep unto death,

and my enemy say, "I have prevailed over him."

My foes will rejoice when I have been shaken.

But I will trust in your mercy;

my heart will rejoice in your deliverance.

I will sing to the Lord, for He has been good to me.

Monday, February 6, 2023

PSALM 12

Help, O Lord,

for the devout are few

and the faithful have vanished

from among the children of men.

They speak deceptively

to each other, with

lying lips

and duplicitous hearts.

May the Lord cast off all

lying lips and

boastful tongues,

those who say:

"Let us strengthen our tongue,

our lips are with us,

who can be our master?"

"Because of the plundering of the poor

and the groans of the needy,

I will now rise up," says the Lord;

"and give them saving aid."

The words of the Lord

are pure;

they are silver tested in fire,

separated from soil,

and seven times refined.

You, O Lord, will keep them,

you will guard them

from this generation on

and forever.

The wicked shall roam on every side

when the vilest of men

are exalted.

Sunday, February 5, 2023

Light Is Everything

Saturday, February 4, 2023

PSALM 11

I have taken refuge in the Lord:

How can you say to me,

"fly to the mountains

like a bird?"

For behold, sinners have bent

the bow and put the arrow

to the string to shoot

the upright in heart

from their hiding place.

When the foundations are destroyed,

what can a just person do?

The Lord is in His holy temple;

the Lord--His throne is

in the heavens.

His eyes see,

His eyelids test

the children of men.

The Lord tests the just,

but His soul hates

the wicked and those who love iniquity.

He will rain snares upon sinners:

fire and sulfur,

and a scorching wind

shall be the portion

of their cup.

For the Lord is righteous,

and He loves righteous deeds.

The upright will see

His face.

Thursday, February 2, 2023

Psalm 10

Why, O Lord,

do you stand far off?

Why do you look away

in times of trouble?

In the arrogance of the wicked,

the poor are burned up:

let them be caught in the schemes

that they have devised.

For the wicked glories in

the desire of his heart,

and the greedy, congratulating himself,

blasphemes the Lord.

The impious says, "He will not seek out

to the full extent of His wrath,"

nor is there any God

in his thoughts.

His ways prosper at all times;

your judgments are far from him:

he scorns his enemies.

He says in his heart,

"I will not be moved:

I will not be unhappy

through all the generations."

His mouth is full of curses,

deceit, and greed;

under his tongue

are grief and iniquity.

He sits in ambush with the rich,

in hidden places,

to kill the innocent:

his eyes spy out the pauper.

He lurks in secret,

like a lion in his den:

he lurks to seize the needy:

to seize the poor

by dragging them off.

In his trap he will humiliate them;

he will stoop and fall

when he has dominated the pauper:

For he has said in his heart,

"God has forgotten:

He has hidden his face;

He will never see."

Rise up, O Lord God,

raise your hand:

do not forget the needy.

Why do the wicked blaspheme God,

saying in their heart that

He will not seek them out?

You do see, for you observe

hardship and anger,

to move them into your hands.

The poor have taken refuge in you,

you are the one who helps the orphan.

Break the arm of the wicked and the evil:

seek out their wickedness until you find none left.

The Lord is king forever and ever:

the nations will perish from his land.

O Lord, you have heard the desire of the poor:

your ear has inclined to the readiness of their heart,

to do justice for the orphan and the humble,

that nevermore should humans tyrannize

upon the earth.

Wednesday, February 1, 2023

Psalms 9:21

Verse 21 of Psalm 9 is a troublesome one for translators, and they have produced wildly different results. The reason, though, is a simple one: the similarity of two Hebrew words, מוֹרֶה (moreh) and מוֹרָא (mora'). The first of these words means "teacher" or "lawgiver;" the second word means "fear, terror." In the Masoretic text that we have today (which goes back to the Leningrad Codex of 1010 CE), there is a mixed reading: מוֹרָה, which does not correctly correspond to either of these words, or indeed to any Hebrew word. Perhaps the Masoretes, faced with an impossible decision, decided to take a middle path. In the critical apparatus to the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS, see illustration), we are told that some (nonnuli) manuscripts (Mss), in addition to Jerome's Hebrew-based version and a couple of other texts, support the "terror" reading, while others, including the Greek of the Septuagint (LXX) and the Syriac (Aramaic) of the Peshitta, support the "teacher, lawgiver" reading.

How can we know for sure which reading is correct? The short answer is that we can't. But we can, and must, consider any clues that are available. In doing so, we will learn a lot about the history of the Hebrew text of this psalm.

The Peshitta (ca. 500 CE) supports the "teacher, lawgiver" reading. This is very important because Aramaic, a sister language of Hebrew, generally follows the Hebrew text of the OT. It is also important because at that time both Hebrew and Aramaic texts lacked vowel pointing. The two words in question, if spelled correctly, are already differentiated by their consonants, without any vowel pointing. For these reasons, a great deal of weight must be given to support from the Peshitta.

The Greek of the Septuagint (LXX, ca. 200 BCE) gives a word that means "lawgiver." We know that the Hebrew text underlying the LXX was in a better state of conservation than our Masoretic text (it includes, for example, the "missing" Nun-verse of the acrostic Psalm 145). It is also the oldest OT text that we have. For these reasons, the reading of the LXX must be given a lot of weight.

This brings us to the question of the state of conservation of the Hebrew text. By 1010 CE, the date of the Leningrad Codex, it was already defective. Some of the missing verses were known from other sources, but the Masoretes were afraid to supply them. Jerome's "Iuxta Hebraeos" version (392 CE), based on the Hebrew text of his time, gives us an interesting picture of the situation. In the edition of Harden (1922), which I think is the best edition, we find "terrorem" in verse 21. The scribal error (as I see it) had already crept into the Hebrew textual tradition by 392 CE. We need to see an earlier text. Unfortunately, the Dead Sea Scrolls are too fragmentary in the Psalms to be of help here. We have to go back to a time 600 years before Jerome did his Vulgate translations, to the Septuagint (LXX, ca. 200 BCE).

In the Vulgate translation of the Psalms (the version based on the LXX), The verset in question reads as follows:

constitue Domine legislatorem super eos (Set, O Lord, a legislator over them)

This was the version approved for use in the liturgy for some 1600 years, and so was familiar to all reciters of the Divine Office in the Breviarium Romanum.

I feel that "legislator" in the LXX and in the Vulgate is overly specific, since the Hebrew word מוֹרֶה can mean either teacher or legislator. Not knowing the intention of the psalmist, and because the second half of the verse has to do with "knowing," I have selected the broader term, "teacher," for inclusion in the verse.

It should also be noted, with regard to the second half of verse 21, that the word "only" should not be part of any translation of the verse. It is not present in the Hebrew, the Greek, or in either of the Latin versions. Indeed, it leaves open the possibility of a positive valuation of what it means to be human.