Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 1:4:
ChichewaMawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero translation, 2002/2016:
“It is not (like) that with wicked people!
They are like chaff
that is blown away by the wind.” (Source: Chichewa Back Translation)
Newari:
“The wicked are not like that.
They are like chaff.
The wind blows them away.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon:
“But not like this the wicked people.
They on-the-other-hand have-no value,
like chaff that just blows-away by the wind.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Eastern Bru:
“But the wicked person doesn’t produce like that,
but that person is like chaff that the wind scatters.” (Source: Bru Back Translation)
Laarim:
“The bad people are not like that!
They are like chaff
that are carried by the wind and just disappear.” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
West African language:
“Bad people are not like the river-by tree,
they are like dry (corn) chaff
which the wind blows away, puff! puff! [=ideophone, i.e. word that expresses what is perceived by the five senses]” (Source: Jacob Loewen in The Bible Translator 1983, p. 420ff. )
Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
“Lakini waovu hawako kama hivyo.
Wao wako kama vile makapi ambayo yanapeperushwa na upepo.” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
English:
“But wicked people are not like that!
Wicked people are as worthless as chaff
that is blown away by the wind.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
This verse presents a strong contrast to the preceding one; in the Septuagint the contrast is even stronger: “The evil are not like this, not at all like this” (this is followed by New Jerusalem Bible). The Hebrew Old Testament Text Project (Hebrew Old Testament Text Project) prefers the Masoretic text (“C” decision).
So refers to the whole description of the righteous in verses 1-3. The translation of “this” as in Good News Translation may cause a problem, since the reader may not realize that it points to the entire preceding clause. The contrast may be rendered more clearly as “But bad people do not succeed at all,” or “But evil people do not do well,” or “But evil people fail in all they do.”
The wicked (same as verse 1) are compared to the worthless chaff, which in the process of winnowing grain was blown away by the wind. After the cut grain stalks were tramped and crushed on the threshing floor, they were pitched into the air by use of a winnowing shovel. The grain fell to the ground and the chaff (or, straw) was blown away. The main point of the comparison is the worthlessness of chaff, which is allowed to be blown away because it is of no value whatever.
The translation of chaff presents no problem in cultures where grains are grown. Elsewhere it is often necessary to use a descriptive phrase which indicates something light and of little value that can be blown by the wind; for example, “dry grass” or “dry leaves.”
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on the Book of Psalms. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1991. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
The following are presentations by the Psalms: Layer by Layer project, run by Scriptura . The first is an overview and the second an introduction into the poetry of Psalm 1.
John Wu Ching-hsiung (1899-1986) was a native of Ningbo, Zhejiang, a renowned jurist who studied in Europe and the United States, and served as a professor of law at Soochow University, as a judge and the Acting President of the Shanghai Provisional Court, and as the Vice President of the Commission for the Drafting of the Constitution of the Republic of China, before becoming the Minister of the Republic of China to the Holy See. Wu has written extensively, not only on law but also on Chinese philosophy, and has also written his autobiography, Beyond East and West, in English. Wu was a devout Catholic and had a personal relationship with Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975). Wu began translating the the Psalms in 1938, and was encouraged by Chiang to translate the entire New Testament, which he corrected in his own handwriting. (…) John Wu Ching-hsiung’s translation of the Psalms (first draft in 1946, revised in 1975) was translated into Literary Chinese in the form of poetic rhyme, with attention paid to the style of writing. According to the content and mood of the different chapters of the original psalm, Wu chose Chinese poetic forms such as tetrameter, pentameter, heptameter [4, 5 or 7 syllables/Chinese characters per stanza], and the [less formal] Sao style, and sometimes more than two poetic forms were used in a single poem. (Source: Simon Wong)
John Wu Ching-hsiung himself talks about his celebrated and much-admired (though difficult-to-understand) translation in his aforementioned autobiography: (Click or tap here to see)
“Nothing could have been farther from my mind than to translate the Bible or any parts of it with a view to publishing it as an authorized version. I had rendered some of the Psalms into Chinese verse, but that was done as a part of my private devotion and as a literary hobby. When I was in Hongkong in 1938, I had come to know Madame H. H. Kung [Soong Ai-ling], and as she was deeply interested in the Bible, I gave her about a dozen pieces of my amateurish work just for her own enjoyment. What was my surprise when, the next time I saw her, she told me, “My sister [Soong Mei-ling] has written to say that the Generalissimo [Chiang Kai-shek] likes your translation of the Psalms very much, especially the first, the fifteenth, and the twenty-third, the Psalm of the Good Shepherd!”
“In the Autumn of 1940, when I was in Chungking, the Generalissimo invited me several times to lunch with him and expressed his appreciation of the few pieces that he had read. So I sent him some more. A few days later I received a letter from Madame Chiang [Soong Mei-ling], dated September 21, 1940, in which she said that they both liked my translation of the few Psalms I had sent them. ‘For many years,’ she wrote, ‘the Generalissimo has been wanting to have a really adequate and readable Wen-li (literary) translation of the Bible. He has never been able to find anyone who could undertake the matter.’ The letter ends up by saying that I should take up the job and that ‘the Generalissimo would gladly finance the undertaking of this work.’
“After some preliminary study of the commentaries, I started my work with the Psalms on January 6, 1943, the Feast of the Epiphany.
“I had three thousand years of Chinese literature to draw upon. The Chinese vocabulary for describing the beauties of nature is so rich that I seldom failed to find a word, a phrase, and sometimes even a whole line to fit the scene. But what makes such Psalms so unique is that they bring an intimate knowledge of the Creator to bear upon a loving observation of things of nature. I think one of the reasons why my translation is so well received by the Chinese scholars is that I have made the Psalms read like native poems written by a Chinese, who happens to be a Christian. Thus to my countrymen they are at once familiar and new — not so familiar as to be jejune, and not so new as to be bizarre. I did not publish it as a literal translation, but only as a paraphrase.
“To my greatest surprise, [my translation of the Psalms] sold like hot dogs. The popularity of that work was beyond my fondest dreams. Numberless papers and periodicals, irrespective of religion, published reviews too good to be true. I was very much tickled when I saw the opening verse of the first Psalm used as a headline on the front page of one of the non-religious dailies.”
A contemporary researcher (Lindblom 2021) mentions this about Wu’s translation: “Wu created a unique and personal work of sacred art that bears the imprint of his own admitted love and devotion, a landmark achievement comparable to Antoni Gaudi’s Basilica of the Sagrada Família in Barcelona, Spain. Although its use is still somewhat limited today, it continues to attract readers for the aforementioned qualities, and continues to be used in prayers and music by those who desire beauty and an authentic Chinese-sounding text that draws from China’s ancient traditions.”
The translation of Psalm 1 from the 1946 edition is in pentameter with rhyme schemes based on -i and -ie (the 1946 edition did not have verse numbers either):
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