joy

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The Greek, Latin and Hebrew that is translated with “joy” or “gladness” in English is translated with various strategies:

  • Baoulé: “a song in the stomach” (see also peace (inner peace))
  • Bambara: “the spirit is made sweet”
  • Kpelle: “sweet heart”
  • Tzeltal: “the good taste of one’s heart”
  • Uduk: “good to the stomach”
  • Mískito: “the liver is wide open” (“happily letting the pleasures flooding in upon it”) (source for this and above: Nida 1952)
  • Mairasi: “good liver” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • Noongar: koort-kwabba-djil or “heart very good” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “refreshed heart” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.).

See also Seat of the Mind for traditional views of “ways of knowing, thinking, and feeling,” happiness / joy, and exceeding joy.

Translation commentary on Sirach 30:22

Gladness of heart is the life of man, and the rejoicing of a man is length of days: Good News Translation has combined Gladness of heart and rejoicing into the one word “Happiness”; Contemporary English Version keeps both with “Joy and happiness.” What does it mean to say that Gladness … is the life of man? New American Bible renders it “Gladness of heart is the very life of man”; New English Bible‘s translation is “A merry heart keeps a man alive.” If gladness is life itself, if gladness is what it means to be alive, if gladness gives life meaning, it means that it makes life worth living (so Good News Translation). Translators who are using poetry may render this verse as follows:

• Joy and happiness will help you
to live a long life
and make it worth living.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Sirach. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.