Wachtendonck's psalms

The Wachtendonck Psalms are a collection of psalms in the old Dutch language.

Surname

The psalms are named after one of the owners of the psalms, Arnold Wachtendonck (Arnoldus Wachtendonckius). The name does not come from the Lower Rhine town of Wachtendonk , which happens to be in the possible area of origin.

origin

The humanistic scholar Justus Lipsius wrote in a letter in 1598 that he had seen an old psalter from the learned canon Arnold Wachtendonck from Liège , which was written in Latin and had a translation into the vernacular between the lines above every word (i.e. a Interlinear translation ). Lipsius made a copy, but the psalter is lost today.

Lore

Today we have the following texts:

822 words in Lipsius' copy
about 500 words in a list that was printed in 1602
a manuscript containing Psalms 1 to 3 and 5
a print of Psalm 18, printed by Abraham van der Myle in 1612
a manuscript containing Psalms 53.7 to 73.9 (Diez manuscript)

Location and dating

The original psalm text is from the 9th or 10th century .

The language of the text is Old Dutch, but Psalms 1 to 3 have a distinct Middle Franconian influence. It is generally believed that the text that has been handed down is the Old Lower Franconian version of a Middle Franconian model.

The question of where the original text originated remains unanswered. Due to linguistic characteristics, Willy Sanders assumed an area on the Lower Rhine, between Roermond , Venlo , Straelen , Duisburg , Kaiserswerth and Düsseldorf . For example, mi and thi (“me / me”, “you / you”) are predominantly used in the text , so that an area in which I was said can be excluded. HKJ Cowan, however, takes a place in the Dutch province of Limburg or in the Belgian province of Limburg .

Text example

The text example is Psalm 54, verses 2 to 4, from the edition by Arend Quak. According to today's counting, this is Psalm 55 , see Ps 55 EU .

The Latin text of the Psalter, which was the template for the Old Dutch text, has not survived, but was reconstructed from various Latin psalm translations and commentaries on the basis of the Old Dutch text.

It is part of the essence of an interlinear translation that there is a translated word above every word in the source language. The sentence structure of Wachtendonck's Psalms is essentially determined by Latin. Sometimes the translator deviates from this rule and translates a Latin word with two old Dutch, e.g. B. in verse 3 mihi - te mi ("to me").

Below the Latin text and the old Dutch translation is a modern, fairly literal translation based on Arend Quak's glossary.

Verse 2

Obey	got	prayer	min
Exaudi	Deus	orationem	meam

Hear, God, my prayer

in	no	faruuirp	sorry	mina
et	no	despexeris	deprecationem	meam

and do not reject my prayer

Verse 3

thenke	te mi	in	obey	mi
intende	mihi	et	exaudi	me

think of me and hear me

Gidruouit	am	on	tilongon	minro
contristatus	sum	in	exercitatione	mea

I am saddened in my zeal

Verse 4

in	misty	am	fan	agree	fiundes
et	conturbatus	sum	a	voce	inimici

and I am confused by the voice of the enemy

in	fan	both work	sinful
et	a	tribulations	peccatoris

and from the annoyance of the sinner

Uuande	inclined to	on	mi	unrotated
quoniam	declinaverunt	in	me	iniquitatem

for they inclined injustice to me

in	on	abulge	unsuoti	uuaron	mi
et	in	ira	molesti	erant	mihi

and in anger I repelled them

literature

HKJ Cowan: De Oudnederlandse (Oudnederfrankische) Psalmsfragmenten met inleiding en Frankisch-Latijnse woordenlijst . Brill,

Leiden 1957.

Arend Quak: The Old Middle Franconian and Old Lower Franconian Psalms and Glosses (= Amsterdam publications on language and literature, Volume 47). Rodopi, Amsterdam 1981.

swell

↑ ^a ^b ^c Herman Vekeman, Andreas Ecke: History of the Dutch language (= Lang's German textbook collection, Volume 83). Peter Lang, Bern 1993, ISBN 3-906-750-37-X .
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Arend Quak: The old Middle and Old Lower Franconian psalms and glosses . Rodopi, Amsterdam 1981.
↑ Arend Quak, Joop van der Horst: Inleiding Oudnederlands . Universitaire Pers Leuven, Leuven 2002, ISBN 90-5867-207-7 .
↑ HKJ Cowan: Localisering van het Oudnederfrankisch the psalm fragments . In: Leuvensche bijdragen op het gebied van de Germaansche philologie en in 't bijzonder van de Nederlandsche dialectkunde , Vol. 48 (1959), pp. 1-47; HKJ Cowan: Nogmaals de localisering van de oudnederfrankische psalmfragmenten . In: Leuvensche bijdragen op het gebied van de Germaansche philologie en in 't bijzonder van de Nederlandsche dialectkunde , vol. 58 (1969), pp. 114–130.

[vekeman_ecke-1] Herman Vekeman, Andreas Ecke: History of the Dutch language (= Lang's German textbook collection, Volume 83). Peter Lang, Bern 1993, ISBN 3-906-750-37-X .

[quak-2] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Arend Quak: The old Middle and Old Lower Franconian psalms and glosses . Rodopi, Amsterdam 1981.

[inleiding-3] Arend Quak, Joop van der Horst: Inleiding Oudnederlands . Universitaire Pers Leuven, Leuven 2002, ISBN 90-5867-207-7 .

[4] HKJ Cowan: Localisering van het Oudnederfrankisch the psalm fragments . In: Leuvensche bijdragen op het gebied van de Germaansche philologie en in 't bijzonder van de Nederlandsche dialectkunde , Vol. 48 (1959), pp. 1-47; HKJ Cowan: Nogmaals de localisering van de oudnederfrankische psalmfragmenten . In: Leuvensche bijdragen op het gebied van de Germaansche philologie en in 't bijzonder van de Nederlandsche dialectkunde , vol. 58 (1969), pp. 114–130.