My new tools are serving me very well indeed. Every time I refine a selected synonym in Hebrew to a different gloss and synonym in English, I am thoroughly rewarded. There is for a single book like the psalms, and I am sure I could do it for all the books I have translated, no excuse for random synonyms, none whatsoever. Every time I have fixed one, I have seen my prior selection as lacking in discipline. Of course, it is not possible that I could have had such discipline to begin with.
The goose is not yet cooked, but the few wild ones I leave in the bush will be footnoted if for some reason I fail to find an adequate unique English gloss. Note this is unique only in the sense of transparency. I am not confining myself to a single gloss for each Hebrew word - sometimes I use many, but I am attempting to complete the process of not reducing different Hebrew words to the same gloss in English. (The English gloss may include a preposition or other modifier for distinction. And I allow homonyms to stand because the context is usually obvious.)
My tools are a single page interactive web form that I have built in the last few weeks using GX-LEAF, a Live Enterprise Accountability Framework that lends itself to the construction of Measurement and Evaluation systems. It is in use by several national and international clients for the analysis of complex problems - from running an organization to diagramming and developing forms for all sorts of interactive data entry and display. We have recently implemented direct update to database tables through server script snippets. This feature has freed me completely from direct database table updates. Also recently implemented is a minimal HTML output feature that allows one click copy and paste to the stand alone published pages. In principle, we could publish direct to blogs.
I have now reviewed most of the glossary letter by letter, and I am republishing gradually each psalm post. Eliminating colour in the text, but retaining it in the supporting tables. I could keep it in the text, but I think it is largely distracting from reading. Over at Poetry of Christ, I have scheduled the remaining posts for July, and may be able to do the same for August when I will be in NY and travelling across the US by train via Washington, Chicago, Santa Fe, and Seattle. Fun if it's not too hot. So come on early, autumn.
Now, in times past, I can understand why anyone might have encouraged me, but declined to correct. Though you couldn't see many of the errors, they were legion. I think they are becoming fewer, and I would love to find them. So if you see things that strike you as odd, perhaps they are, and I would be grateful if you might challenge my English in a comment. I think these translations are suitable for an individual to read as a different but still recognizable approach to the psalms in this day. You can carry a word to me if you wish.
Since I implemented my first version of controlled changes a little over 2 weeks ago, I have made over 2000 selected changes to individual words affecting 660 verses. I have not yet published all these changes - so feedback should be limited to those pages that appear in the new format. The new format uses some css classes I have copied into my blog template.
Newly published at the moment are psalms 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 62, 63, 64. Psalm 1 is also here. I will refrain from updating too quickly. I must now put my prosodic divisions in the database before publishing - just enough to slow me down and have me check individual words as I republish. I hope to be fully republished by the end of September. Then I think I will be prepared for the learning I will do at UVIC during my fellowship there in the 4th quarter of this year.
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