Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on Lamentations. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
All verses in chapter 1 have three units of parallelism (except 1.7, which has four). The first half-line of each unit is identified in both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation by its initial capital letter: How, How, She, and “How,” “Once,” “The.”
In all three units of verse 1, the poet contrasts the condition of Jerusalem as it is now, with what the city formerly was. In the first two units the present condition is described in the first half-line, and the former condition in the second half-line. However, in the third unit that order is reversed, with the former status (was a princess) described in the first half-line, and the present condition (become a vassal) in the second half-line. Not only is the poet contrasting “now” with “then,” but by reversing the order in the last unit, a structural contrast is created within the verse. Moreover there is a good bit of matching of meaning between like a widow has she become and has become a vassal, also between great among the nations and princess among the cities. This parallelism of meaning, it should be noticed, occurs between the half-lines of different units rather than between half-lines within the same unit. Good News Translation follows the same order, except in the second unit, where the past condition is placed first; Good News Translation does this apparently for stylistic reasons.
In some languages it may be clearer to reverse the “now … then” order in the first two units so that they conform to the pattern of the third unit. In this way all three units depict the past as occurring before the present. For example:
Jerusalem that was once full of people is now lonely;
she who was once great among the nations is now like a widow;
she who was like a princess is now like a slave.
How … that was: How is the first Hebrew word in the first sentence and serves as the title for the whole book in its Hebrew form. The same word occurs also at the beginning of chapters 2 and 4 and is found in Jeremiah 48.17c and in Isaiah 1.21, where Jerusalem is also described as a woman. The expression serves here to stress the contrast between the past and the present. In many languages this exclamation must be rendered by a clause. For example, “Look, how awful it is” or “It is a very terrible thing.” The same expression may sometimes be rendered idiomatically; for example, “I say this with tears” or “I say this with my heart failing.” In some languages it may be clearer to mark the contrasts between the present sufferings and the past glories by saying, for example, “In earlier times,” “In the past,” or “Before Jerusalem was defeated.”
Sits the city makes the city appear as a person. In some languages it is possible to employ a verb such as sit only with an animate subject. Therefore it may be necessary to say “The city is very empty” or “There are no people in the city.”
The term lonely refers here to the lack of people, or to being deserted by those who once lived there. It may sometimes be translated figuratively; for example, “having only one word left,” “with no one to talk to,” “with only one dog for a friend.”
City refers to the city of Jerusalem, which in modern terms would be more like a village or town. Although today most people are acquainted with noisy modern cities, it may be better to speak of the “town,” if such a category exists in the translator’s language. Good News Translation says “How lonely lies Jerusalem.” This is to make clear that city refers only to the city of Jerusalem and not to some other city.
The expression full of people makes it clear that a population center is in focus. Full of people is an expression of relative degree. A term used in translation should not give the idea that it was so full that there was no space not taken up by people. The sense is “with very many people” or “having a large number of people.”
The expression like a widow compares Jerusalem to a wife who has lost her husband. This may imply that Yahweh has deserted her—a thought that is expanded in verse 2. The picture of a widow is used to emphasize the misery of Jerusalem compared with her previous greatness. The same is true in the last unit of verse 1, where Jerusalem is compared to a slave. If the term widow must be replaced by a descriptive phrase, it may be possible to say “like a miserable woman whose husband has died.” If a nonfigurative expression must be used in place of widow, it may be possible to say, for example, “Jerusalem was a great city, but now is as miserable as a woman whose husband has died.” A further translation decision is whether to keep the third person reference or to change to a more personal second person. If the second person is preferred, the translator should use it consistently.
She that was great among the nations: nations translates the Hebrew term goyim, a word that is sometimes applied to the gentiles or pagan people. For example, in Exodus 34.24, “I will cast out nations (goyim) before you, and enlarge your borders.” The term is also used to refer to the descendants of Abraham in Genesis 12.2, “I will make of you a great nation….” In verse 1 there is no attempt to contrast Israel with the non-Israelites, and so nations refers to all the political groupings, among which Israel was one. Good News Translation “honored by the world” expresses this well.
Princess among the cities refers to the high status of Jerusalem in contrast with the servant status of vassal in the following half-line. The term does not mean the daughter of a king but rather a noble lady, or the wife of a noble or leader among the people. Good News Translation “noblest of cities” may need to be reworded to say, for example, “Before you were like a princess” or, as Bible en français courant says, “Yesterday a princess ruling the provinces, but now reduced to….”
Vassal translates a word which suggests forced labor imposed upon a conquered people, and so Good News Translation “fallen into slavery.” New English Bible has “now put to forced labour.” In some languages it is possible to maintain the figurative language of this unit by saying, for example, “You were like the rich daughter of the chief, but now you have become like the poorest slave” or “You who were like a great princess have now become like a poor servant.”
Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on Lamentations. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .