The eye desires grace and beauty: The thought of The eye desiring something may be strange. Good News Translation‘s rewording here is effective in English. We could also say “People enjoy seeing things that are graceful [or, elegant] and beautiful.” Another possibility is “We enjoy seeing things that are beautiful and move gracefully.” However, the phrase grace and beauty in Greek does not exclude human grace and beauty.

But the green shoots of grain more than both: The green shoots of grain refers to the young grain in the fields, attractive in itself, but bringing with it the promise of a food supply. Good News Translation “new growth in the spring” is an accommodation to English-speaking readers, most of whom live in parts of the world where crops are planted in the spring and harvested in the autumn. The Greek does not mention a season; in fact, planting in Palestine was done in the autumn, and that is when the new growth would appear in the fields. An alternative model for this line is “But more than these [or, most of all] we enjoy seeing the new green shoots of grain in our fields.”

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.