Wade Brown notes that it has been said that "poetry is what is lost in translation." In other words, when poetic lines are converted from one language to another, the rhyming sounds are lost. Consider the child's poem:
Roses are red, violets are blue
Sugar is sweet, and so are you.
When put into Spanish it becomes:
Las rosas son rojas, las violetas son azules.
El azucar es dulce, y usted es tambien.
In English "you" rhymes with "blue," but in Spanish "tambien" does not rhyme with "azules." There is more to poetry than this simple repetition of similar sound, but the illustration suffices to demonstrate the problem that translation creates.
This explains why a poet may be very popular within one area of the world but entirely unappreciated in others. It also explains why the sound of some spiritual writing is considered beautiful beyond expression to one people but uninspiring to some others.
But what if there was a divine poetry so universal in its application that it could be recognized and appreciated in every language. What if it was originally composed in Hebrew, but when properly translated into English, Russian, Chinese or another language, it retained its essence and beauty?
Poetic rhyming is actually the repetition of sound; either the same sound or similar sound. But as demonstrated, a universal poetry could not use the repetition of sound for different languages. However, if the repetition was not the repetition of sound but the repetition of meaning, then it could be easily transferred from one language to another.
Such an unusual poetry has been discovered, or rather rediscovered, and in the last century the academic community came to recognize it within the Hebrew and Greek testaments of the Bible. . . . Some have titled this ancient poetic language style "Hebrew parallelism," although it is not entirely unique to early Hebrew. . . . Unlike other poetic forms, the parallel phrasing of the ancient prophets is not lost when carefully translated from one language to another. For example, when Nephi foretold the future of the Bible and the Book of Mormon he said: "the Jews shall have the words of the Nephites, and the Nephites shall have the words of the Jews and the Nephites and the Jews shall have the words of the lost tribes of Israel and the lost tribes of Israel shall have the words of the Nephites and the Jews. (2 Nephi 29:13)
When the passage is placed in an appropriate format, its parallel nature becomes obvious. It is worth noting that in this case the inverted parallel form is repeated in the next set of phrases. This is a double inverted parallel:
1. the Jews
2. shall have the words of
3. the Nephites
3' and the Nephites
2' shall have the words of
1' the Jews
4. and the Nephites and the Jews
5. shall have the words of
6. the lost tribes of Israel
6' and the lost tribes of Israel
5' shall have the words of
4' the Nephites and the Jews. (2 Nephi 29:13)
Rhyming poetry is lost in translation, but notice what occurs when the parallelism of this verse is translated into Spanish:
1. los Judios
2. tendran las palabras de
3. los Nefitas
3' y los Nefitas
2' tendran las palabras de
1' los Judios
4. y los Nefitas y los Judios
5. tendran las palabras de
6. las tribus perdidas de Israel
6' y las tribus perdidas de Israel
5. tendran las palabras de
4' los Nefitas y los Judios.
Although the words have changed from English to Spanish, the repetition and pattern of words is obvious even to those who do not understand Spanish.
Why is this a divine form? As a student of language and a teacher of religion I came to believe the axiom, "repetition is the mother of learning." Restating an idea or principle is one of the best ways to remember it and to have it become a part of our lives. . . .
During the reformation Bible translators did not understand or recognize this poetic form and in many instances selected words and sentence structures in a way that much of the parallel nature of the phrasing was covered over. When more literal and precisely translated versions are used, the parallelism or repetition of thought becomes more visible. [C. Wade Brown, The First Page of the Golden Plates, pp. 33-45]