widow

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “widow” in English is translated in West Kewa as ona wasa or “woman shadow” (source: Karl J. Franklin in Notes on Translation 70/1978, pp. 13ff.) and in Newari as “husband already died ones” or “ones who have no husband” (source: Newari Back Translation).

The etymological meaning of the Hebrew almanah (אַלְמָנָה) is likely “pain, ache,” the Greek chéra (χήρα) is likely “to leave behind,” “abandon,” and the English widow (as well as related terms in languages such as Dutch, German, Sanskrit, Welsh, or Persian) is “to separate,” “divide” (source: Wiktionary).

See also widows.

Translation commentary on Baruch 4:16

These two verses refer back to Deut 28.49-50, but see also Jer 5.15.

A shameless nation, of a strange language: The Greek word translated shameless probably here has the meaning “ruthless” or “merciless.” So Contemporary English Version has “cruel.” See Hab 1.6-9. Of a strange language simply emphasizes that those who carried the Jews into exile were foreigners. Good News Translation keeps the term language with “a shameless nation that speaks a foreign language.” Contemporary English Version omits it, saying simply “a cruel and foreign nation.”

Who had no respect for an old man, and had no pity for a child: Good News Translation expresses this as “has no respect for the elderly and no pity for children,” and Contemporary English Version has “it had no pity on anyone, whether young or old.”

They led away the widow’s beloved sons, and bereaved the lonely woman of her daughters: Widow and lonely woman refer to Jerusalem after the exile had begun. Good News Translation begins verse 16 with “These people” (Contemporary English Version “That nation”) rather than They to avoid the possibility, however unlikely, that someone would mistake “the elderly” and “children” as the subject. Good News Translation also makes the discourse easier to follow by casting verse 16 in the first person, saying “These people carried off my beloved sons and took away my daughters….” (similarly Contemporary English Version).

Good News Translation “took away my daughters” misses the impact of bereaved. This could be restored with a slight change: “took my daughters away from me.” The two lines of verse 16 are of course parallel and could be combined easily, but leaving the two statements separate and parallel sounds more like a call for sympathy, which is what Jerusalem seeks (verse 14). A combined version might read like a dry statement of fact. Good News Translation has taken from the parallelism the words the widow’s and the lonely woman and made them a separate clause, saying “and I was left a widow, completely alone.” Contemporary English Version does it with “and now I am a lonely widow.” This effectively closes Jerusalem’s appeal to the neighbors by describing herself in such a way as to arouse their sympathy. Once more there is the possible problem of translating the mixed metaphor of a widow and a woman who has lost her children here (see the comments at verse 12).

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Shorter Books of the Deuterocanon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2006. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.