Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 1:5:
ChichewaMawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero translation, 2002/2016:
“So wicked people will not be able to stand in judgment,
or sinful people in the assembly of righteous people.” (Source: Chichewa Back Translation)
Newari:
“So at the time of judgment
the wicked will be punished.
And sinners will not be able to remain
in the assembly of the righteous.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon:
“So on the day of judgment, they will-be-punished by God
and they will- not -be-joined-in with the righteous-ones.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Eastern Bru:
“Arriving at the day God judges the wicked people,
on that day God will sort out those wicked people from the straight good/righteous people.” (Source: Bru Back Translation)
Laarim:
“Therefore, God will judge the people who do bad matter,
and the sinners will not stay together in one place with good people.” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
“Kwa hiyo waliopotoka hawatakuja kupona kuhukumiwa,
watenda dhambi hawatakuja kuwamo katika kundi la wanyofu. ” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
English:
“Therefore, wicked people will not be acquitted/will be condemned when God judges people,
and furthermore, sinful people will not even be present when God gathers righteous people together,” (Source: Translation for Translators)
The Greek, Hebrew, and Latin terms that are translated in English mostly as “righteous” as an adjective or personified noun or “righteousness” (also as “upright(ness)” and “just(ice)”) are most commonly expressed with concept of “straightness,” though this may be expressed in a number of ways. (Click or tap here to see the details)
Following is a list of (back-) translations of various languages:
Paasaal: “white heart” (source: Fabian N. Dapila in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 415ff.)
(San Mateo del Mar Huave: “completely good” (the translation does not imply sinless perfection)
Nuer: “way of right” (“there is a complex concept of “right” vs. ‘left’ in Nuer where ‘right’ indicates that which is masculine, strong, good, and moral, and ‘left’ denotes what is feminine, weak, and sinful (a strictly masculine viewpoint!) The ‘way of right’ is therefore righteousness, but of course women may also attain this way, for the opposition is more classificatory than descriptive.”) (This and all above from Bratcher / Nida except for Bilua: Carl Gross; Tiv: Rob Koops; Muna: René van den Berg)
Yatzachi Zapotec: “walk straight” (source for this and four previous: John Beekman in Notes on Translation November 1964, p. 1-22)
Makonde: “doing what God wants” (in a context of us doing) and “be good in God’s eyes” (in the context of being made righteous by God) (note that justify / justification is translated as “to be made good in the eyes of God.” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
Aari: The Pauline word for “righteous” is generally rendered by “makes one without sin” in the Aari, sometimes “before God” is added for clarity. (Source: Loren Bliese)
Ekari: maakodo bokouto or “enormous truth” (the same word that is also used for “truth“; bokouto — “enormous” — is being used as an attribute for abstract nouns to denote that they are of God [see also here]; source: Marion Doble in The Bible Translator 1963, p. 37ff. ).
Guhu-Samane: pobi or “right” (also: “right (side),” “(legal) right,” “straightness,” “correction,” “south,” “possession,” “pertinence,” “kingdom,” “fame,” “information,” or “speech” — “According to [Guhu-Samane] thinking there is a common core of meaning among all these glosses. Even from an English point of view the first five can be seen to be closely related, simply because of their similarity in English. However, from that point the nuances of meaning are not so apparent. They relate in some such a fashion as this: As one faces the morning sun, south lies to the right hand (as north lies to the left); then at one’s right hand are his possessions and whatever pertains to him; thus, a rich man’s many possessions and scope of power and influence is his kingdom; so, the rich and other important people encounter fame; and all of this spreads as information and forms most of the framework of the people’s speech.”) (Source: Ernest Richert in Notes on Translation 1964, p. 11ff.)
German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999): Gerechtheit, a neologism to differentiate it from the commonly-used Gerechtigkeit which can mean “righteousness” but is more often used in modern German as “fairness” (Berger / Nord especially use Gerechtheit in Letter to the Romans) or Gerechtestun, also a neologism, meaning “righteous deeds” (especially in Letter to the Ephesians)
Therefore: this introduces the consequence of the worthless nature of the wicked. Unlike Good News Translation, it should be formally represented in translation; for example, “And so,” “For this reason,” or “On account of this.”
In line a the Hebrew text repeats the wicked from verse 4, and in line b it has the synonymous term sinners. Good News Translation has combined the two, using “Sinners” as the subject of both lines, since the same people are meant, and not two different groups. These two lines are typically parallel, in that line a uses the common term judgment, whereas line b shifts to the rarer and more literary expression congregation of the righteous. The second line carries the condemnation of the wicked even further by saying “what’s more, they (the ‘wicked,’ now called ‘sinners’) will not be part of God’s own people.” Translators will often use one term for wicked and sinners here, as well as in verse 1. In any case, they should be certain that the text does not imply that the two lines speak of two different groups.
Will not stand in the judgment: “will be condemned by God when they are judged.” This line is obviously a close parallel to the next line; the wicked are the same as sinners, and what is said of them in this line must parallel or complement what is said of them in the next line. The verb “to stand” is understood by some scholars to mean “to be resurrected,” but most believe that it is a figure of acquittal in a court of judgment; that is, not stand means not to be acquitted, and so, “be condemned.” New Jerusalem Bible translates “will not survive (judgment),” and New English Bible (New English Bible) “shall not stand firm.” In the second line the same verb (which is not repeated in Hebrew) means “will not be together with the righteous people.” The main question to be answered is whether the psalmist is talking about the final Day of Judgment or thinking about the judgment of God which falls upon everyone in this life and particularly, in Hebrew thought, in the common life of the people of God. The next verse, which speaks of Yahweh’s knowing “the way of the righteous” while “the way of the wicked” disappears, seems to support the former interpretation, that is, “there on the Day of Judgment sinners will be condemned; they will not be with God’s own people.” However, should the translator prefer the other interpretation, something like the following can be said: “Therefore sinners will be punished by God; they cannot be a part of God’s people.”
Stand in the judgment will often remain unclear to the reader unless God is named as the one who judges the wicked. In some languages it is necessary to avoid a passive construction and say “God will condemn evil people,” or if it is desirable to make more explicit the failure of the wicked at the judgment, then one may render it “God will not find evil people innocent when he judges them.”
Nor sinners in Hebrew the one verb “to stand” is used for both lines; it may be necessary, as Good News Translation does, to have another verb for line b, since not stand … in the congregation of the righteous means that the wicked will not be included among the righteous people. The translation of line b can be “they (or, the sinners) will not be included among the righteous,” “there will be no place for sinners in the gathering (or, assembly) of the righteous.”
Most translations of verse 5 appear as a pair of coordinate statements concerning the wicked (Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation). However, if the translator is to make clear the relation of the second line to the first, it is necessary to show that the second line goes beyond the first; for example, “what is more, they will be kept apart…” or “they will even be kept apart….” In languages in which the passive is not used, it may be necessary to say, for example, “not only that, but God will not accept them as part of his own people,” or as direct address, “… God will say ‘You are not part of my people.’ ”
The phrase the congregation of the righteous means all God-fearing Israelites (see 111.1). Here it stands for those whom God rewards in this life or will reward on Judgment Day. Something like “the faithful,” or “those who obey God,” or “those whom God will declare innocent” may be used. Or else, “God’s own people.” Good News Translation “kept apart” supplies the implied verb in line b. Line b may be handled as the consequence of line a, that is, “God will judge evil people, and therefore they will not be among his people.”
The word congregation should not be translated by a word or phrase that indicates an organized religious group, especially a Christian group. Here it means simply “all the righteous,” “all of God’s people,” “all the people who worship God.”
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):
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.