songs of Moses and Miriam

Following is a translation of the songs of Moses and Miriam from Exodus 15 into dance and a song presented in the traditional Fang troubadour style (mvét oyeng) by the group Nkuwalong as part of a project by Bethany and Andrew Case. (Note that you can activate English, French and Spanish subtitles.)

complete verse (Exodus 15:5)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 15:5:

  • Kupsabiny: “The water covered those people,
    they sank down like stones.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “The deep waters have covered them;
    they sank to the depths like a stone.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “They have-drowned in the deep water;
    they sank to the depth like a stone.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “The big ocean covered them,
    and so they sank and went down to the interior of the deep ocean like a stone.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “Water climb here covered them head,
    They sunk as stone.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “The water covered them like a flood;
    they sank to the bottom like a stone.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Exod 15:5

The floods is a term used for the primeval waters, the watery chaos, “the deep” in Gen 1.2. (Revised Standard Version translates this same word as “the deeps” in verse 8.) Here the plural is used, so “deep waters” (New International Version) or “deep sea” (Good News Translation) is better. Cover them is present tense, but others have “covered.” The tense is not indicated in the Hebrew verb form, so one must interpret the context.

They went down is the usual word for descend, but here “they sank” (Good News Translation) seems appropriate. Into the depths is another word for the deep sea, so it is possible to say “they sank to the bottom.” Like a stone is a simile that is repeated in different form in verses 10 and 16. In each case it is a discourse marker that signals the end of the “narrative” and the beginning of the “response” in each of the three parts of the song. (See Muilenburg’s pattern above.) Contemporary English Version eliminates the semantic parallelism, which would be unnatural style in modern English:

They sank to the bottom
just like stones.

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .