The Psalm against the Donatists, or the Alphabetical Psalm, by Augustine of Hippo: comments and translation of a popular poem from the 4th century
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.34019/2318-3446.2023.v11.41129Keywords:
Augustine of Hippo, Donatism, metric, poetic translationAbstract
Early in his religious life, Augustine of Hippo wrote the Psalm against the sect of Donatus, a sermon against the Donatist schism which, a century ago, had broken the unity of the Catholic Church in Proconsular Africa. In this piece, Augustine innovated the rules of classical poetics, elaborating a poem of popular feature, immediate understanding and memorization. Influenced by North African rhythms, based on isosylabism and on the parallelism of the accentuation of the words, and not on the number of long and short syllables, he produced one of the most innovative works of ancient literature. This article presents the first poetic translation of this Psalm into Portuguese, written in large roundels (septisyllable verses), given the possible rhythmic similarity between the original verses and the translated version. It was intended to provide the reader with a minimum historical overview for a better understanding of the poem. A structural analysis of the work was included in this paper, for the systematisation of its content.
Downloads
References
Edições dos textos originais latinos
GSELL, Stéphane. Inscritions latines de l’Algérie – tome premier. Paris: Edouard Champion, 1922.
LAMBOT, C. Texte complété et amendé du “Psalmus contra partem Donati”. Revue Bénédictine, v. 47, p. 312-330, 1935.
MARIUS VICTORINUS. De metris et hexametro commentarius. In: KEIL, Heinrich (ed.). Grammatici Latini – Scriptores artis metricae. V. 6. Lipsiae: Teubneri, p. 206-215, 1874.
Textos complementares
BARNES, T. The beginnings of Donatism. Journal of Theological Studies, v. 26, p. 13-22, 1975.
BAXTER, J. H. On St. Augustine “Psalmus contra partem Donati”. Sacris Erudiri, v. 4, p. 18-26, 1952.
BEARE, William. Latin verse and european song – a study in accent and rhythm. London: Methuens & Co Ltd, 1957.
BRITTAIN, F. The medieval latin and romance lyric to A.D. 1300. Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1937.
CASCUDO, L. da Câmara. Literatura Oral no Brasil. Rio de Janeiro: Livraria José Olímpio/MEC, 1978.
CLARK, Gillian. In Praise of the Wax Candle: Augustine the Poet and Late Latin Literature. In: ELSNER, Jás; LOBATO, Jesús Hernandez (eds.). The Poetics of Late Latin Literature. Ed. New York: Oxford University, 2017, p. 424-446.
FITZGERALD, Allan. Circunceliões. In: FITZGERALD, Allan (ed.). Agostinho através dos tempos – Uma enciclopédia. São Paulo: Paulus, 2019a, p. 232-233.
FITZGERALD, Allan. Retractationes. In: FITZGERALD, Allan (ed.). Agostinho através dos tempos – Uma enciclopédia. São Paulo: Paulus, 2019b, p. 848-849.
FREND, W. The Donatist Church – a movement of protest in roman north Africa. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1952.
HUNINK, Vincent. Singing together in Church: Augustine’s Psalm against the Donatists. In: LARDINOIS, André; BLOK, Josine; Van der POEL, M. G. M. (eds.). Sacred Words: Orality, Literacy and Religion. Leiden: Brill, 2011, p. 389-402.
LONGOSZ, Stanislaw. El Theatricum carmen de Augustín. Augustinus, v. 36, p. 181-184, 1991.
MAMMÌ, L. Música, métrica e tempo no pensamento de Agostinho: um projeto. Cadernos De Trabalho Cepame, n. 2, v. 2, p. 99-104, 1993.
MANDOUZE, André. Prosopographie chrétienne du Bas-Empire, 1. Prososopographie de l’Afrique chrétienne (303-533). Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1982.
MARKUS, Robert. Donato/Donatismo. In: FITZGERALD, Allan (ed.). Agostinho através dos tempos – Uma enciclopédia. São Paulo: Paulus, 2019, p. 354-357.
MEILLET, Antoine. Esquisse d’une histoire de la langue latine. Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1933.
NODES, Daniel. The Organization of Augustine’s Psalmus contra Partem Donati. Vigiliae Christianae, v. 63 p. 390-408, 2009.
RABY, F. A History of Cristian-Latin Poetry. Oxford: Oxford University, 1953.
RABY, F. The Oxford Book of Medieval Latin Verse. Oxford: Oxford University, 1959.
ROSE, H. St Augustine as forerunner of medieval hymnology. The Journal of Theological Studies. V. 28, p. 383-392, 1927.
SEDGWICK, W. The trochaic tetrameter and the versus popularis in Latin. Greece and Rome, v. 1, n. 2, p. 96-106, 1932.
SHAW, Brent. Sacred Violence – African Christians and Sectarian Hatred in the Age of Augustine. Cambridge: Cambridge University, 2011.
SPRINGER, Carl. The artistry of Augustine’s Psalmus contra partem Donati. Augustinian Studies, v. 16, p. 65-74, 1984.
TILLEY, Maureen. Donatist Martyr Stories – the church in conflict in Roman north Africa. Liverpool: Liverpool University, 1996.
VAN GEEST, Paul. Space in coercive poetry. Augustine’s Psalm Against the Donatists and his interpretation of the fear of God in Enarrationes in Psalmos. Perichoresis, v. 14, n. 2, p. 21-37, 2016.
VROOM, Hermanus. Le psaume abécédaire de Saint Augustin et la poesie latine rhythitimique. Nijmegen: Dekker & Van de Vegt, 1933.
WHITEHOUSE, John. The Course of the Donatist Schism in Late Roman North Africa. In: MILES, Richard (ed.). The Donatist Schism – Controversy and Contexts. Liverpool: Liverpool University, 2016, p. 13-33.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Márcio Meirelles Gouvêa Júnior
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright
The authors of the published contributions agree with the following items:
1. The authors keep the copyright and convey to the journal the right of first publication, the work being licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International.
2. The authors are allowed and stimulated to publicize and distribute their work online after the publication in the journal, recognizing first publication in this journal.
3. The authors of the approved works authorize the journal to distribute their content, after publication, for reproduction in content indexes, virtual libraries and similars.
For more information about Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International, please, go to: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en
Editorial exemption
The authors of the published contributions are entirely and exclusively responsible for their contents. Its content does not represent an official position of Rónai - Revista de Estudos Clássicos e Tradutórios neither of Faculdade de Letras da Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora or their partner institutions.
