Translating the Psalms from Oral to Print to Performance: A Report on the Work of PsalmsThatSing

Performance and arts
Written By Sebastian Floor; Peter Yuh

PsalmsThatSing is a small inter-agency working group with the goal to develop a workflow and curriculum for the translation of the Psalms. Its distinctives are various: it follows a 10-step methodology starting with oral familiarization and internalization processes that then proceeds to oral drafting and transcribing. Incorporating local poetic features by verbal artist-translators is another methodology of this initiative. The multimodal interface between the oral, the print, and visual performance is yet another. This presentation will first explain the vision, mission, distinctives, and methodologies of PsalmsThatSing, including the 10-step method. The second part will be a presentation of one psalm guide with photos and video footage from actual pilot workshops.

Sebastian Floor; Peter Yuh

Sebastian J. Floor is a Dutch-born South African currently living in Cape Town. He and his wife Karen served for 20 years with SIL in Mozambique. He has earned a PhD at Stellenbosch University on Biblical Hebrew. Since 2012 Sebastian is a translation consultant with Seed Company and leads the PsalmsThatSing working group.

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Psalms: Layer-by-Layer (Cambridge Digital Bible Research): Participant Analysis of Psalm 118
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An Analysis of Performances Based on the Oral Translation of Psalms and Judges 4-5 into Altai.