I went forth like a canal from a river and like a water channel into a garden: Good News Translation tries to give the reader a clear signal that the author has shifted focus here dramatically, and is now going to talk about himself by beginning with “As for me, I thought of myself as…” (Contemporary English Version “I thought of myself as…”). In this verse ben Sira describes the early days of his lifelong search for Wisdom. He had no “sea” of Wisdom then (verse 29); it was more like a canal (Good News Translation “irrigation canal”) or “ditch” that people dug to carry water from a river into a garden. The garden here is not primarily a plot for growing vegetables, as American readers would probably think, but a park-like area, probably with trees, bushes, and flowers, perhaps with some food grown as well. Good News Translation efficiently combines the two lines into one by combining canal and water channel into the expression “irrigation canal.” Any term used to describe this irrigation canal must not be misunderstood. It is something a worker could dig with a shovel or hoe; its size is seen in the next verse. It is not like the canals in Panama or at Suez. An alternative model for this verse is:

• As for me, I thought of myself as a little ditch bringing water from a river to irrigate [or, water] a garden.

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.