ABSTRACT
Mary Sidney certainly hints, here and elsewhere, at modern analogies for the travails and travels of Israel, but her stress on Israel is lighter, her stress on the speaker's pain greater. In some regards, then, the illustration better suits her translation than it does that of Louis Chron's sister; it shows a chained prisoner, but one would need the psalm to recognize a member of the captive Israelite nation. Mary Sidney is one of her time's most powerful translators of psalms into English verse, with impressive metrical variety and rhythmic force, so it is not surprising that some of that power goes into what can seem a personal expression, whoever the speaker and of whatever gender. Sidney's translation again edges into what they often consider George Herbert's territory. Male and female can merge in some psalm translations. So can the praising, beseeching private self and the equally pressured, equally rejoicing, and world outside.
