Aari: “the day our Savior comes” (in Rom 13:11) (source: Loren Bliese)
in Mairasi its is translated as “life fruit” or “life fruit all mashed out.” Lloyd Peckham explains: “In secret stories, not knowable to women nor children, there was a magical fruit of life. If referred to vaguely, without specifying the specific ‘fruit,’ it can be an expression for eternity.” And for “all masked out” he explains: “Bark cloth required pounding. It got longer and wider as it got pounded. Similarly, life gets pounded or mashed to lengthen it into infinity. Tubers also get mashed into the standard way of serving the staple food, like the fufu of Uganda, or like poi of Hawaii. It spreads out into infinity.” (See also eternity / forever)
In Lisu a poetic construct is used for this term. Arrington (2020, p. 58f.) explains: “A four-word couplet uses Lisu poetic forms to bridge the abstract concrete divide, an essential divide to cross if Christian theology is to be understood by those with oral thought patterns. Each couplet uses three concrete nouns or verbs to express an abstract term. An example of this is the word for salvation, a quite abstract term essential to understanding Christian theology. To coin this new word, the missionary translators used a four-word couplet: ℲO., CYU. W: CYU (person … save … person … save). In this particular case, the word for person was not the ordinary word (ʁ) but rather the combination of ℲO., and W: used in oral poetry. The word for ‘save’ also had to be coined; in this case, it was borrowed from Chinese [from jiù / 救]. These aspects of Lisu poetry, originally based on animism, likely would have been lost as Lisu society encountered communism and modernization. Yet they are now codified in the Lisu Bible as well as the hymnbook.”
In the Contemporary Chichewa translation (2002/2016) it is translated with chipulumutso which is used to refer to an act of helping someone who is in problems but cannot help him/herself come out of the problems because of weakness. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
The Hebrew that is translated as “rock” in English is translated in the Chichewa as thanthwe. “Thanthwe” normally is a big stone that spreads over a large area either visible or lying underneath and cannot be lifted or moved. In Chewa religious context, “thanthwe” was a sacred rock which people believed to be the place of worship. This place was safe because it was associated with the presence of the Supreme Being. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 62:2:
Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
“Only him is my rock and my salvation;
He is my fortress, so I will not be shaken.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Newari:
“He alone rescues me,
and saves [me].
He is my fortress,
I will never be defeated.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon:
“He only (is) my rock of refuge and savior.
He (is) my refuge/one-to-go-for-help, therefore I will- not ever -be-troubled.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Laarim:
“He is the only one who is my mountain, and he is my salvation.
He is my place that is fenced to be strong,
there will be nothing that will shake me.” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
“Peke yake ndiye mwamba wangu na wokovu wangu,
ndiye ngome yangu, sitatikisika hata mara moja.” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
English:
“Only he is like an overhanging rock under which I can be safe;
he will be like a shelter, with the result that I will never be defeated.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
God transcends gender, but most languages are limited to grammatical gender expressed in pronouns. In the case of English, this is traditionally confined to “he” (or in the forms “his,” “him,” and “himself”), “she” (and “her,” “hers,” and “herself”), and “it” (and “its” and “itself”).
Modern Mandarin Chinese, however, offers another possibility. Here, the third-person singular pronoun is always pronounced the same (tā), but it is written differently according to its gender (他 is “he,” 她 is “she,” and 它/牠 is “it” and their respective derivative forms). In each of these characters, the first (or upper) part defines the gender (man, woman, or thing/animal), while the second element gives the clue to its pronunciation.
In 1930, after a full century with dozens of Chinese translations, Bible translator Wang Yuande (王元德) coined a new “godly” pronoun: 祂. Chinese readers immediately knew how to pronounce it: tā. But they also recognized that the first part of that character, signifying something spiritual, clarified that each person of the Trinity has no gender aside from being God.
While the most important Protestant and Catholic Chinese versions respectively have opted not to use 祂, some Bible translations do and it is widely used in hymnals and other Christian materials. Among the translations that use 祂 to refer to “God” were early versions of Lü Zhenzhong’s (呂振中) version (New Testament: 1946, complete Bible: 1970). R.P. Kramers (in The Bible Translator 1956, p. 152ff. ) explains why later versions of Lü’s translation did not continue with this practice: “This new way of writing ‘He,’ however, has created a minor problem of its own: must this polite form be used whenever Jesus is referred to? Lü follows the rule that, wherever Jesus is referred to as a human being, the normal tā (他) is written; where he is referred to as divine, especially after the ascension, the reverential tā (祂) is used.”
In that system one kind of pronoun is used for humans (male and female alike) and one for natural elements, non-liquid masses, and some spiritual entities (one other is used for large animals and another one for miscellaneous items). While in these languages the pronoun for spiritual entities used to be employed when referring to God, this has changed into the use of the human pronoun.
Lynell Zogbo (in The Bible Translator 1989, p. 401ff. ) explains in the following way: “From informal discussions with young Christians especially, it would appear that, at least for some people, the experience and/or concepts of Christianity are affecting the choice of pronoun for God. Some people explain that God is no longer ‘far away,’ but is somehow tangible and personal. For these speakers God has shifted over into the human category.”
In Kouya, God (the Father) and Jesus are referred to with the human pronoun ɔ, whereas the Holy Spirit is referred to with a non-human pronoun. (Northern Grebo and Western Krahn make a similar distinction.)
Eddie Arthur, a former Kouya Bible translation consultant, says the following: “We tried to insist that this shouldn’t happen, but the Kouya team members were insistent that the human pronoun for the Spirit would not work.”
In Burmese, the pronoun ko taw (ကိုယ်တော်) is used either as 2nd person (you) or 3rd person (he, him, his) reference. “This term clearly has its root in the religious language in Burmese. No ordinary persons are addressed or known by this pronoun because it is reserved for Buddhist monks, famous religious teachers, and in the case of Christianity, the Trinity.” (Source: Gam Seng Shae in The Bible Translator 2002, p. 202ff. )
In Thai, the pronoun phra`ong (พระองค์) is used, a gender-neutral pronoun which must refer to a previously introduced royal or divine being. Similarly, in Northern Khmer, which is spoken in Thailand, “an honorific divine pronoun” is used for the pronoun referring to the persons of the Trinity (source: David Thomas in The Bible Translator 1993, p. 445 ). In Urak Lawoi’, another language spoken in Thailand, the translation often uses tuhat (ตูฮัด) — “God” — ”as a divine pronoun where Thai has phra’ong even though it’s actually a noun.” (Source for Thai and Urak Lawoi’: Stephen Pattemore)
The English “Contemporary Torah” addresses the question of God and gendered pronouns by mostly avoiding pronouns in the first five books of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (unless God is referred to as “lord,” “father,” “king,” or “warrior”). It does that by either using passive constructs (“He gave us” vs. “we were given”), by using the adjective “divine” or by using “God” rather than a pronoun.
Some Protestant and Orthodox English Bibles use a referential capitalized spelling when referring to the persons of the Trinity with “He,” “His,” “Him,” or “Himself.” This includes for instance the New American Standard Bible or The Orthodox New Testament, but most translations do not. Two other languages where this is also done (in most Bible translations) are the closely related Indonesian and Malay. In both languages this follows the language usage according to the Qur’an, which in turn predicts that usage (see Soesilo in The Bible Translator 1991, p. 442ff. and The Bible Translator 1997, p. 433ff. ).
The psalmist begins with “Surely (or, Only) toward God my soul (in) silence; from him (is) my salvation”–an eloquent statement of trust in the God who alone can save him. The word translated alone is used at the beginning of verses 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, and 9, and sets the tone of this confident expression of faith. Waits: either for God to speak or to act. If the translator accepts the sense of waiting for God to speak, he may translate 1a as “I wait silently for God to speak” or “I remain quiet waiting for words from God.” Good News Translation has taken in silence to mean without complaining, that is, “patiently”; New Jerusalem Bible “quietly”; Bible en français courant “tranquil.” Some, however, instead of assuming that a verb like “to wait for” is implied, understand the Hebrew text to mean “Only in God is rest (or, peace) for my soul”; so Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “Only in God do I find peace,” and New Jerusalem Bible “In God alone there is rest for my soul” (see Bible en français courant and New International Version). Either of the two is possible, and perhaps the latter is to be preferred. The prepositional phrase “in God” indicates that God is the source of peace, and the idea may be expressed by “God alone can give rest (or, peace) to my soul.”
Verse 2 begins in the same way: He only is my rock and my salvation; for rock see 18.2 and comments, and for salvation see comments on the related verb translated “Help” in 12.1. For comments on fortress see 9.9 (“stronghold”). The translator may be able to preserve the figure of the rock by making some adjustments. For instance, it may be possible to say “he protects me like a rock, and he is the one who saves me.” If the use of the rock as a figure for protection is not meaningful in the language, it may be possible to employ a local equivalent. If that is not possible it is better to shift to a nonfigurative usage such as Good News Translation.
The verb translated be … moved is found also in 10.6. The word translated greatly by Revised Standard Version is a bit problematic; most (New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy), like Good News Translation, take it to mean here “not” or “never”; so New Jerusalem Bible “I shall never be shaken.” Bible en français courant has “With him there is no risk of failure.” It would seem a bit out of place for the psalmist to state “I shall not be badly shaken,” but this could be the meaning intended. Briggs and Weiser omit the word.
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 .
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