Yesterday I got to translate the biggie. That’s right, John 3:16. The Nyungwe translators are spending the week with me here at the Bible college and we’re going through the Gospel of John verse by verse to clean up the translation. This stage of the translation is mind-blowing. It is the stage where the translation finally shakes off the last traces of the source language and begins to sing. Of course, many times little bits of pieces of awkwardness remain.
I can’t really describe for you what it’s like to get to take part in a Bible translation. It’s something I always dreamed of doing. But now I know that it is less and more than what I imagined. Very often the bulk of our time is spent ironing out seemingly inconsequential points. For example, yesterday we spent close to thirty minutes trying to decide what Moses did with the serpent in John 3:14. Did he lift it up? Did he hang it on a tree? The verse is tied to its surroundings and of course to the original passage in Numbers 21. For theological reasons, I was pushing for something like “lift up” with a secondary meaning of “exalt.” In the end the translators were only satisfied with the word for “to hang.” Then it took a long time to decide if they should include the information “on a stick.” This was problematic because pamuti can also mean “on a tree.” In the end, we left that out and decided to just move on and look at it again with the reviewers.
John can be maddeningly obtuse. For example, look at John 3:31:
The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. (3:31, NIV)
The first and last phrases are almost identical. The difference between above and heaven in Nyungwe is a single letter: kudzaulu vs. kudzulu.
We spent more than an hour working on John 3:29:
The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. (3:29, NIV)
It is small comfort that most of the commentaries don’t really know what this is talking about either.
Well, that’s some of the tedious stuff but there are many insights as well. On Tuesday morning we had a terrible time deciding how to translate “stone jar” in John 2:6. Jars in this part of the world are made of clay and they have many different names. At one point I picked up my phone and did a Google search for “stone jar John 2 Cana.” This brought me to the Virtual Qumran project and a photo of a stone jar. [I'm unable to access that page this morning for some reason] Realizing how huge these jars must have been helped me to better picture the scene and also make inferences about the place where this wedding was taking place.
We laughed several times at the way Jesus never seems to answer a question directly. The dialogue with his mother is very funny.
Today we are continuing the battle beginning at John 4:11 and the story of the woman at the well.
Let me leave you with John 3:16 in Nyungwe:
Nterepoyo Mulungu adafuna dziko: adapereka mwana wace m’bodzi yekha kuti wentse ule omwe animukhulupirira aleke kufa, tsono akhale na moyo wakusaya kumala.
It is like that that God loved the world: he gave his only son that the one who trusts him might not die but remain with life that doesn’t end.
[...] David Ker works as part of the team translating the New Testament into the Nyungwe language in Mozambique. He has just posted a fascinating account of checking John Chapter 3 with the team. I can’t really describe for you what it’s like to get to take part in a Bible translation. It’s something I always dreamed of doing. But now I know that it is less and more than what I imagined. Very often the bulk of our time is spent ironing out seemingly inconsequential points. For example, yesterday we spent close to thirty minutes trying to decide what Moses did with the serpent in John 3:14. Did he lift it up? Did he hang it on a tree? The verse is tied to its surroundings and of course to the original passage in Numbers 21. For theological reasons, I was pushing for something like “lift up” with a secondary meaning of “exalt.” In the end the translators were only satisfied with the word for “to hang.” Then it took a long time to decide if they should include the information “on a stick.” This was problematic because pamuti can also mean “on a tree.” In the end, we left that out and decided to just move on and look at it again with the reviewers. … read more [...]
Well, I for on am thankful that the Nyungwe readers and hearers will have a clearer and generally better translation of this verse than English speakers (one, further, that actually translates the outws in a way that makes its meaning obvious).
Great post explaining Bible translation. I have a clearer picture now of what it is like.
[...] David Ker works as part of the team translating the New Testament into the Nyungwe language in Mozambique. He has just posted a fascinating account of checking John Chapter 3 with the team. I can’t really describe for you what it’s like to get to take part in a Bible translation. It’s something I always dreamed of doing. But now I know that it is less and more than what I imagined. Very often the bulk of our time is spent ironing out seemingly inconsequential points. For example, yesterday we spent close to thirty minutes trying to decide what Moses did with the serpent in John 3:14. Did he lift it up? Did he hang it on a tree? The verse is tied to its surroundings and of course to the original passage in Numbers 21. For theological reasons, I was pushing for something like “lift up” with a secondary meaning of “exalt.” In the end the translators were only satisfied with the word for “to hang.” Then it took a long time to decide if they should include the information “on a stick.” This was problematic because pamuti can also mean “on a tree.” In the end, we left that out and decided to just move on and look at it again with the reviewers. … read more [...]