An English version of the Dorz/Moldoveanu Psalter?

Having recently received a copy of the Dorz/Modoveanu Psalter from my friend Eugen Tămaș, who is visiting the United States from his native Romania, I am quite taken with a collection that came into existence through the fires of persecution. Cântările Psalmilor has just come out in a second expanded edition and appears poised to spread the liturgical practice of psalm-singing amongst the evangelical Christians in that country. I myself have come up with three English-language versifications to fit the melodies of Nicolae Moldoveanu, the centenary of whose birth was observed last year. 

Nevertheless, there are obstacles in the way of rendering a metrical psalter from one language into another, as I discovered in my own work with the Genevan Psalter. Let me give you an example. Here is Psalm 23 from Cântările Psalmilor:

The opening line in Romanian runs as follows: "DOMNUL e Păstorul meu, lipsă nu voi duce!" Unlike other romance languages, Romanian places its definite article as an unstressed suffix at the end of the modified noun. The masculine suffix is "-ul", added to the same gendered noun. This leaves the stress on the first syllable, as reflected in Moldoveanu's melody for Psalm 23, and yields a trochaic metrical structure for the tune in which the lines begin with a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable.

However, when I rendered it into English, I was compelled by the metrical structure to paraphrase the first two lines beyond what I would have preferred: "The LORD guides me in his love as a shepherd tends his flock." Even then, placing the stress on "the" rather than "LORD" doesn't quite work.

If I were to render the 23rd Psalm in better English, it might turn out something like this:

The LORD is my shepherd; I’ll not be in need.
In lush verdant pastures he makes me to lie.
He leads to still waters, restoring my soul.
He guides me in righteous ways for his name’s sake.

Although I may walk through a valley so dark
In death’s mortal shadow, no ill will I fear,
For you’re always with me; your rod and your staff
Are there for my comfort when trouble is near.

You’ve set me a table before all my foes;
My head you’ve anointed; my cup overflows.
Your goodness and mercy are there all my days;
I’ll dwell in the LORD’s house as long as I live.

Versification: © David T. Koyzis, 2023

The metre begins with an iamb but then immediately moves into dactylic structure in which a stressed syllable is followed by two unstressed syllables. Possible well-known tunes to which this could be sung include ST DENIO, FOUNDATION, and CRADLE SONG, although the last tune is probably too associated with Christmas to work well here. Alternatively, one might go with my versification of Psalm 23 from my Niagara Psalter project which is in ballad metre, or common metre, as it is called in the indices of our hymnals.

None of these considerations would make impossible an English version of Cântările Psalmilor, although they would at least pose difficulties. Yet these difficulties are not essentially different from those posed by the tunes of the Genevan Psalter, tailored as they were to the French language. An English-language edition of the Dorz/Moldoveanu Psalter should be possible.