I have yet more to say, which I have thought upon: Here ben Sira says that he is not through—he has more ideas he wants to write about. The translator’s task here is to convey the feeling that a pause in the book has been reached, and the writer has stopped to catch his breath. Contemporary English Version has a good model: “I have hardly begun to tell you all the things I want to say.”

And I am filled, like the moon at the full: In English at any rate, a person full of ideas is not likely to be compared to the full moon. It is a peculiar comparison—we feel that the word full is being used in two different senses—and all translations are somewhat forced, including Good News Translation, which strains too hard. In English we can speak of a person being “at the height of his powers,” meaning at that time in his life when he is strongest, or at the point in his career where he is producing or accomplishing the most. Perhaps this is the feeling ben Sira had in writing this. By ancient standards he has already written a good-sized book, but there is so much more he wants to say. Translators will be on their own as to how they can deal in a natural way with this figure of speech, but in English a possible model for the whole verse is:

• But now I want to discuss more of my ideas. I am at the height of my powers now, like the full moon.

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.