4and said to me, ‘I am going to make you fruitful and increase your numbers; I will make of you a company of peoples and will give this land to your offspring after you for a perpetual holding.’
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Genesis 48:4:
Kankanaey: “‘I will cause- your (sing.) children -to-become-many in-the-future and your descendants will become large nations. I will give them this land so that they will take-possession-of it forever.’ ‘” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Newari: “‘I will give you many descendants. I will make various nations from you. I have given this place to you, and this will be for you and your descendants forever forever.'” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “He said, ‘I will-give you (sing.) many descendants so-that you (sing.) will-become father of many people. And I will-give the land of Canaanto your (sing.) descendants and this will-become theirs forever/[lit. until whenever].’ ‘” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “and said to me, ‘I am going to enable you to become the father of many children. You will have many descendants, and they will become the ancestors of many people-groups. And I will give this land to your descendants to possess forever.'” (Source: Translation for Translators)
Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.
Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.
Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.
Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme rare (られ) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, ōse-rare-ru (仰せられる) or “say” is used.
Jacob said to Joseph: the lack of a greeting at the beginning of Jacob’s speech will make this situation appear unreal in many languages. Accordingly it may be necessary to say, for example, “Jacob greeted Joseph and said to him….”
God Almighty … Luz: this and verse 4 refer to the event in 35.11-13. For God Almighty see 35.11.
I will make you fruitful … company of peoples: for the translation of this expression, see 28.3, where Isaac sent Jacob to Mesopotamia to get a wife. For everlasting possession see 17.8.
Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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