"If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?"

I am re-reading Augustine's Confessions, which I first read fifty years ago and have read portions thereof many times since. For many years. the standard English translation was that of E.B. Pusey (1800-1882) from 1838, which was actually the revision of William Watts’ 1631 translation. There are many good translations out there: this is my favourite, that of R. S. Pine-Coffin.

As S.L. Greenslade noted in a review from the early 1960s, Pine-Coffin sometimes take liberties with the text. For example, in the first sentence in 6.2, he adds “my mother” and “in Milan” at the close. And in 1.1, his translation of per humanitatem filii tui by “through the merits of your Son, who became man,” is really playing fast and loose with the Latin. The introduction could be fuller and again Greenslade points out, it is simply incorrect to say that Augustine had a “profound distaste for Greek” (p.18). But I love it, probably because it is the first translation that I ever read.

This is Pine Coffin’s translation of Confessions 1.5:

Cramped is the dwelling of my soul; expand it, that You may enter in. It is in ruins, restore it. There is that about it which must offend Your eyes; I confess and know it, but who will cleanse it? Or to whom shall I cry but to You? Cleanse me from my secret sins, O Lord, and keep Your servant from those of other men. I believe, and therefore do I speak; Lord, You know. Have I not confessed my transgressions unto You, O my God; and You have put away the iniquity of my heart? I do not contend in judgment with You, who art the Truth; and I would not deceive myself, lest my iniquity lie against itself. I do not, therefore, contend in judgment with You, for

if You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?

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